Data from the experiment of dynamic moisture transport in spruce wood under cyclic step-changes in relative humidity 72–95 %

TL;DR

This study provides data on how spruce wood absorbs and releases moisture under changing humidity, which is important for predicting its behavior in different environments.

Contribution

The paper presents new experimental data and material functions for spruce wood under cyclic humidity changes.

Findings

Spruce wood shows different moisture transport rates in tangential and radial directions under cyclic humidity.

Sorption hysteresis and temperature changes due to moisture sorption were observed in the samples.

Material functions for sorption and permeability were derived from the same wood samples used in the experiment.

Abstract

The interaction of wood and moisture has to be considered in many industrial sectors. Wood is highly hygroscopic material while the absorbed moisture affects all its technical properties. One of them is a moisture permeability which is further affected by the sorption hysteresis and also differs in the three wood anatomical directions – radial, tangential, and axial. For the prediction of the dynamic hygro-thermal behaviour of wood can be used numerical simulation tools. However, data from carefully designed and controlled experiments are needed for reliable validation of these tools. This paper presents data from a 45-day dynamic laboratory experiment. The one-dimensional moisture transport in spruce wood in the tangential and radial directions under isothermal conditions was studied. The samples were exposed to cyclic step-changes in relative humidity 72–95 % at 23 °C. Data show the rate of stabilisation of moisture content in the samples, the effect of sorption hysteresis, and changes in the temperature of samples due to moisture sorption. In addition, the paper also presents material functions describing the sorption properties and moisture permeability of spruce wood. These properties were determined based on laboratory measurements using the spruce wood of the same origin as used for the dynamic experiment. The dynamic data, together with the proposed material functions can be used in the development or verification of hygro-thermal numerical simulation tools.

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