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Water-repellent efficiency of thermally modified wood as affected by its permeability

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Abstract

This study shows how the air permeability of thermally modified wood contributes to its water-repellent efficiency. For this purpose, freshly cut boards of hornbeam (Carpinus betulus), poplar (Populus nigra), and heartwood of oak (Quercus castanifolia) were modified at a steam temperature of 180 °C for 3 h inside a ThermoWood kiln. The porous structure, permeability, and water uptake of wood were affected differently by thermal modification, depending on the wood species. The creation of micro-cracks in the cell walls, due to collapsing of fiber cells, resulted in a noticeable increase in the permeability of hornbeam. Despite checking in the poplar wood structure, its permeability was negatively affected by thermal modification. In contrast to oak and poplar, a negative water-repellent efficiency was observed for the modified hornbeam, caused by an increase in the permeability.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. Ingo Burgert, Prof. Emil Engelund Thybring, Ms. Vivian Merk and Ms. Stéphane Croptier in the Wood Materials Science Group at the Institute for Building Materials at ETH Zurich.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Wood and Paper Science and Technology, Faculty of Natural Resources, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, 31587-77871, Islamic Republic of Iran

    Asghar Tarmian & Akbar Mastouri

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  1. Asghar Tarmian
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  2. Akbar Mastouri
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Correspondence to Asghar Tarmian.

Additional information

Project funding: The work was supported by Scientific Center of Excellence for Applied Management of Fast-Growing Wood Species at University of Tehran.

The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com

Corresponding editor: Tao Xu.

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Tarmian, A., Mastouri, A. Water-repellent efficiency of thermally modified wood as affected by its permeability. J. For. Res. 29, 859–867 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-017-0495-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-017-0495-3

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