COMPARISON OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS WITH ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS AND 2-DIMENSIONAL MODEL OF OAK DRYING IN AN EVACUATED KILN

In continuation of a series of tests, the original results of oak dryi ng in an evacuated kiln are presented here for different plate tempera tures and for various pressures in the kiln. These results include mor e particularly the drying curves, the evolution of temperature, of moi sture and of pressure in and on the wood. They evidence the pressure a nd the levels of temperature occurring in the wood during the drying p eriod. These results also allow the development of two types of drying models : a simple monodimensional model of drying curves from the ana lytical solutions of the equations of water diffusion in the wood and, moreover, a model, in two dimensions, of temperature, moisture and pr essure fields in the wood by applying the finite element method. The b oundary conditions of the second model can be fixed with precision tha nks to the results of the first model. In both cases, the proposed sol utions are justified by experimental results.