The relationship between wood and moisture content is complex and can lead to a range of issues, such as cracking due to dimensional changes and fungal degradation (Sargent, 2019). Wood expands in response to increased moisture content. The moisture content can be affected by the external loads that compress the wood fibres and reduce their ability to absorb moisture to some extent (Kersavage, 1973; Tsai and Ansell, 1990), while numerical calculations have shown that varying loading conditions redistribute moisture content in wood (Chen et al., 2019). The determination of moisture content under static loading conditions and varying relative humidity is important to understand the behaviour of wood in service. For this, we designed specialized fixtures to apply static loads on woodblocks in both the radial and tangential directions during conditioning. Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and principal component analysis were used to identify the change in wood moisture content under static loading conditions.
Keywords: Wood moisture content, static loading, near-infrared hyperspectral imaging, multivariate data analysis
Authors
Muhammad Awais
Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, P.O. Box 16300, 00076 Aalto, Finland
Michael Altgen
Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Department of Wood Technology P.O. Box 115, 1431 Ås, Norway
Tiina Belt
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Viikinkaari 9, 00790 Helsinki, Finland
Ella Mahlamäki
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Ltd, PO Box 1000, 02044 VTT Espoo, Finland
Mikko Mäkelä
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Ltd, PO Box 1000, 02044 VTT Espoo, Finland
Lauri Rautkari
Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, P.O. Box 16300, 00076 Aalto, Finland
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