The Fractal Nature of Wood Revealed by Water Absorption

Authors

  • José Arnaldo Redinz
  • Paulo Roberto Colares Guimarães

Keywords:

Water absorption, fractals, porosity, void volume

Abstract

We use a simple experimental procedure of pressurized water absorption to show the fractal nature of the pore space in wood. Cubic blocks of wood were immersed in water at a given pressure for 14 days, and mass changes were measured. The plots of the mass changes versus block edge sizes are straight lines whose slopes correspond to the fractal dimensions of the void volume in wood. Results for different species and for distinct water pressures are shown, suggesting the fractal dimension as a new relevant parameter to characterize the porosity of wood.

References

Alves, S. G., M. L. Martins, P. A. Fernandes, and J. E. H. Pittella. 1996. Fractal patterns for dendrites and axon terminals. Physica A. 232:51-60.nAvnir, D., D. Farin, and P. Pfeifer. 1984. Molecular fractal surfaces. Nature 308:261-263.nFricke, J. 1989. Aerogels—Preparation, properties, and application. Proc. Winter School on Glasses and Ceramics from Gels. São Carlos, SP, Brazil. World Scientific, London, UK.nHansen, J. P., and A. T. Skjeltorp. 1988. Fractal pore space and rock permeability implications. Phys. Rev. B 38(4):2635-2638.nMandelbrot, B. B. 1977. The fractal geometry of nature. W. H. Freeman and Co., New York, NY.nNonnenmatcher, T. F., G. A. Losa, and E. R. Weibel, eds. 1994. Fractals in biology and medicine. Birkhauser Verlag, Basel, Switzerland.nRuffet, C., Y. Gueguen, and M. Darot. 1991. Complex conductivity measurements and fractal nature of porosity. Geophysics 56(6):758-768.nSiau, J. F. 1984. Transport process in wood. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany 25 pp.nStanley, H. E., and N. Ostrowsky, eds. 1985. On growth and form. NATO ASI Series. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Boston, MA.nTsallis, C., E. M. F. Curado, M. S. Souza, V. L. Elias, C. Bettini, M. S. Scuta, and R. Beer. 1992. Generalized Archie law-Application to petroleum reservoirs. Physica A 191:277-283.nTsoumis, G. 1991. Science and technology of wood. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY.nVicsek, T. 1992. Fractal growth phenomena. World Scientific, London, UK.nVicsek, T., M. Cserzo, and V. K. Horath. 1990. Self-affine growth of bacterial colonies. Physica A 167:315-321.nVilela, M. J., M. L. Martins, and S. R. Boschetti. 1995. Fractal patterns for cells in culture. J. Pathol. 177: 103-107.n

Downloads

Published

2007-06-19

Issue

Number 4 / October 1997

Section

Research Contributions

License

The copyright of an article published in Wood and Fiber Science is transferred to the Society of Wood Science and Technology (for U. S. Government employees: to the extent transferable), effective if and when the article is accepted for publication. This transfer grants the Society of Wood Science and Technology permission to republish all or any part of the article in any form, e.g., reprints for sale, microfiche, proceedings, etc. However, the authors reserve the following as set forth in the Copyright Law:

1. All proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.

2. The right to grant or refuse permission to third parties to republish all or part of the article or translations thereof. In the case of whole articles, such third parties must obtain Society of Wood Science and Technology written permission as well. However, the Society may grant rights with respect to Journal issues as a whole.

3. The right to use all or part of this article in future works of their own, such as lectures, press releases, reviews, text books, or reprint books.