The influence of wood specimen geometry on moisture movement during drying

The influence of the geometrical shape of a wood specimen on the dynamics o f drying under isothermal conditions is investigated in this research. Poly nomials describing the dependence of halfdrying time on the ratio of the ar ea to the perimeter of the transverse section of extremely long specimens o f northern red oak Quercus rubra, are presented for drying from above the f iber saturation point. This paper describes the conditions of usage of a tw o-dimensional moisture transfer model in contrast to the one-dimensional mo del for accurate prediction of the drying process. The dependence of halfdr ying time on the ratio of the volume to the surface of the specimens in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped has been investigated using a three- dimensional moisture movement model. Polynomials describing that dependence are presented.