Moisture Sorption Isotherms of the Wood and Inner Bark of Ten Southern U.S. Hardwoods

Authors

  • Kwame I. A. Okoh
  • Chris Skaar

Keywords:

Wood moisture, moisture relationships, moisture models

Abstract

The adsorption isotherms of the woods and inner barks of ten hardwoods, measured at 25 C and atmospheric pressure, were essentially identical, but the desorption isotherms for the barks were consistently lower than those for the woods. Three fundamental constants were required to evaluate the isotherms in terms of the Dent (1977) model, a modification of the classical BET surface model, and of the Hailwood-Horrobin (1946) single-hydrate solution model. Two of these constants are identical for the two models, but the third is somewhat lower for the Dent model. Both models divide the sorbed water into two components, one strongly bonded and the other more weakly bonded to the wood or bark substrate. Also both models predict an identical parabolic relationship giving the ratio of the relative humidity to the moisture content as a function of relative humidity.

References

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Published

2007-06-27

Issue

Number 2 / Summer 1980

Section

Research Contributions

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