Water in wood

Abstract

It would be hard to exaggerate the crucial role that water plays at every stage in the processing and use of wood regardless of the end product. The problems that the presence of water creates can rarely be avoided and often the solutions are partial at best. Wood tissue is formed in a saturated environment and the non-crystalline cell wall constituents, the hemicelluloses and lignin, are both affected to some degree by it's presence. One of the principal problems encountered is that wood shrinks as it loses moisture and swells again as it regains moisture. Wood is not dimensionally stable. Here the wood-water system is examined at some length.