Abstract
A technique for nondestructive evaluation of moisture content distribution in Japanese cedar (sugi) during drying using a newly developed soft X-ray digital microscope was investigated. Radial, tangential, and cross-sectional samples measuring 100 × 100 × 10 mm were cut from green sugi wood. Each sample was dried in several steps in an oven and upon completion of each step, the mass was recorded and a soft X-ray image was taken. The relationship between moisture content and the average grayscale value of the soft X-ray image at each step was linear. In addition, the linear regressions overlapped each other regardless of the sample sections. These results showed that soft X-ray images could accurately estimate the moisture content. Applying this relationship to a small section of each sample, the moisture content distribution was estimated from the image differential between the soft X-ray pictures obtained from the sample in question and the same sample in the oven-dried condition. Moisture content profi les for 10-mm-wide parts at the centers of the samples were also obtained. The shapes of the profiles supported the evaluation method used in this study.
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Part of this work was presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Japan Wood Research Society, Hiroshima, August 2007
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Tanaka, T., Avramidis, S. & Shida, S. Evaluation of moisture content distribution in wood by soft X-ray imaging. J Wood Sci 55, 69–73 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10086-008-0997-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10086-008-0997-x