Theoretical Prediction and Experimental Determination of Heating Time During High-Temperature Heat Treatment of Wood

Theoretical prediction provides basic understanding and guidance to correctly implement a certaintechnology in the production process. The present study uses a differential equation to predict the heattransfer time between the surface and core layer of wood during the heat treatment, with applicability inestimating the duration of heat treatments at high temperatures. The obtained prediction was compared withthe result of an experimental study performed on Chinese poplar wood with various thicknesses (20, 40 and60mm). During this experiment, the time necessary for the core of wood to reach a temperature of 100°C,130°C and finally 180°C was monitored and the recorded values were compared with the predicted ones.The result of this comparison proved that the experimental values matched the theoretically predicted times,validating thus the applicability of the proposed equation as prediction tool.