The relief of growth stresses in young hardwood logs
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2008
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The efficient utilisations of broadleaved plantation logs, mainly the 20 to 35
year old eucalyptus, require the relief of growth stresses before sawing. Analysis of the
effect of growth stresses shows that the presence of longitudinal stresses causes bending
of boards, encountered when sawing a log longitudinally because the fibres closer to the
pith of the tree expand, and those closer to the outside contract.
The new engineering approach used in this research project is based on well
known engineering principles. The growth stresses create forces to push the wood to
the outside direction resulting in the distortion of the board sawn longitudinally.
Consequently, if a force is created in the inside direction to balance the force exerted by
the growth stresses, then boards can be sawn straight. This was possible by creating a
minimal amount of drying acting on the layer of the cambium, where most nutrients and
moisture exist in the tree, hence the largest amount of water.
The drying process used was a microwave drying that dries first the area which
contains the largest amount of water. The microwave heating causes the sapwood to
dry before other areas of the tree trunk, which balance the growth stresses.
The research project was carried out in two stages. Initially, in the preliminary
research stage, the technique was applied to small samples, 350 mm long specimens of
young trees to prove the concept before embarking on commercial sized samples.
Finally, commercial sized specimens, 2.5 meter in length were tested.
The measuring technique developed by Yoshida & Okuyama (2002) combined
with hand sawn grooves inserted to relieve the stress instead of holes was used to
measure the strain in samples.
The results of the preliminary research showed that 70.6% reduction in the
strain could be obtained by a microwave drying treatment on the samples by reducing
the sample weights by only 0.5% of the original green weight.
Logs were dried by about 2% of their green weight during the commercial
sized specimens’ research. This did not change the moisture content of the logs by
much and treated logs were above the 50% moisture content and nearly considered as
green condition. Additionally, the treatment had no adverse effects on the rigidity of
the boards sawn from treated logs. The average MOE (Modulus of Elasticity) of five
treated boards was found to be higher by 10% than the average MOE of five untreated
boards which confirmed that the integrity of the natural wood was not compromised in
the treatment process.
The treatment reduced the strain by 132%. Therefore, since the strain is a
function of stress, it follows that the treatment had successfully reduced the stress in
logs of timber as well as the strain.
Furthermore, treatment had also reduced distortion in 50 mm boards by 145%
and by 200% in 25 mm boards.
The technique developed during this research program was carried out as one
process and consumed only 137kW/m³. Furthermore, it relieved the growth stresses
effects by comparing the strain before and after treatment. Also, the distortions
measured in the treated boards were far less than the distortions measured in the
untreated boards.
The great advantage of this treatment is in its simplicity and practicality. The
treatment procedure is to reduce the weight of the logs by only 2%. In general,
sawmills receive their supply of logs with known weights, so to reduce it by 2% would
be a simple mathematical exercise.
A mathematical model of a polynomial function based on the experimental
results was developed and used in this research project to express the distortion at the
middle of the board as a function of major variables, namely, length, diameter, area,
weight, density, moisture content, loss of moisture content during treatment and time of
treatment.
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