Interactive effect of surface densification and post-heat-treatment on aspen wood

✍ Scribed by Meng Gong; Clevan Lamason; Ling Li

• Book ID: 104023445
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 286 KB
• Volume: 210
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0924-0136
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2009.09.013

✦ Synopsis

Surface densification technique can be used to enhance mechanical properties of low-density wood at a relative low temperature such as 145 • C. However, the final dimensions of densified wood products are not stable when exposed to cyclic weathering. Post-high-temperature heat-treatment could assist in solving this problem through the modification of chemical components in wood. This study examined the interactive effect of surface densification and post-heat-treatment on aspen (Populus tremuloides). Thickness swelling and other selected properties of heat-treated surface densified aspen were compared to untreated aspen. As expected, the heat-treatment significantly improved the dimensional stability of surface densified aspen and reduced the mechanical properties to some degree. However, the mechanical properties of heat-treated densified specimens were still greater than those unheat-treated undensified ones.