Swelling of wood

✍ Scribed by G. I. Mantanis; R. A. Young; R. M. Rowell

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1024 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0043-7719
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00192691

✦ Synopsis

The rate and maximum swelling of several North American wood species in water have been obtained with a computer interfaced linear variable displacement transformer. Since wood swells extremely fast in water even at room temperature, this apparatus made it possible for the first time, to obtain accurate rate data on the swelling of wood in water. The strict linear dependence of swelling on the temperature suggests a chemical mechanism. The activation energies obtained from Arrhenius plots ranged from 32.2 KJ/mole for sitka spruce to 47.6 KJ/mole for sugar maple. Although the two hardwoods exhibited greater maximum tangential swelling compared with the two softwoods, the maximum swelling appears to be correlated with the wood density. Generally both the rate and maximum swelling of the woods were increased by removal of extractives and the activation energies were reduced.