Thermal characterization of pine wood by photoacoustic and photothermal techniques

Photoacoustic and photothermal techniques are used to investigate the therm ophysical properties at room temperature for each of the three main planes of nine species of pine wood. The open-photoacoustic-cell approach is used to measure thermal diffusivity, a, and the photothermal technique of contin uous illumination of the sample in vacuum is used to measure the product of density and specific heat capacity, pc. Thermal conductivity and effusivit y are derived from the measurements for a and pc. We conclude that these te chniques are well suited to study thermal properties of wood.