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1. Explain the main anatomical and morphological differences between softwoods and hardwoods.

Woods are divided into two categories: hardwoods and softwoods. Hardwood and softwood trees are
botanically quite different. Both are included in the botanical division spermatophytes, meaning they
produce seeds. Hardwoods are in the subdivision Angiospermae, and softwoods are in the Gymnospermae
subdivision. Angiosperms are characterized by production of seeds within ovaries, whereas gymnosperms
produce seeds that lack a covering layer.

Needlelike leaves characterize softwood trees. Such trees are commonly known as evergreens because most
remain green the year around, annually losing only a portion of their needles. Most softwoods also bear
scaly cones and they referred as conifers. Included in the softwood group in the Northern Hemisphere are
the genera pine, spruce, larch, fir, hemlock, redwood, yew, cypress, douglas fir, and cedars.

In contrast to softwoods, hardwoods are angiosperms that bear broad leaves that generally change color
and drop in the autumn in temperate zones and produce seeds within acorns, pods, or other fruiting bodies.
Hardwoods in the Northern Hemisphere include oak, ash, elm, maple, birch, beech, and cottonwood, aspen.

Not only do hardwood and softwood trees differ in external appearance, but the wood formed by them also
differs morphologically. The types of cells, their relative numbers, and their arrangements are different.
Fundamental difference being that hardwoods contain a type of cell called a vessel element. This cell type
occurs in most hardwoods but very seldom in softwoods. Hardwoods are classified as ring – or diffuse -
porous, depending on the size and distribution of vessels in a cross section. All hardwoods do not always
produce hard, dense wood. Many softwoods produce wood that is harder and denser than wood produced
by some hardwoods. For example, Balsa wood is from a hardwood species.

2. Explain on the cell level how trees are expanding in diameter

Periclinal division of a fusiform initial results in formation of two cells, one of

which remains meristematic and a part of the cambium. The other cell becomes
either a xylem or a phloem mother cell. The mother cell immediately begins to expand
radially and may itself divide one or more times before developing into a mature
xylem or phloem element.

a) a fusiform initial prepares to divide, as chromosomes split, and

then separate.

b) a cell plate begins to form and becomes a new cell wall

(c) Both cells begin to grow in diameter and length.

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d) The innermost cell becomes part of the xylem, pushing outward the other portion that remains part of
the cambium.

e) the cycle begins again.

3. Explain the 4 different functions fulfilled by tree cells. Give for each of this function the type of cells which are
involved.

4. Explain the differences between pits, perforation plates and lumen.

Perforation plate The end wall of a vessel element, with one or more openings to allow the passage of water
and dissolved substances. Pits are the characteristic depressions on the cell walls of plant cells. They act as
the channels for the transport of water and minerals between adjacent cells. the cell has a hollow center
(lumen). Lumen is the inside space of a cell in plant and its function is storage of food or exchange of ions.

5. Give the 3 analysis surfaces of wood on this picture:

A cross sectional or transverse surface is formed by cutting a log or piece of lumber to length; radial
and tangential surfaces result from cutting along the grain. A radial surface is made by cutting
longitudinally along the radius of a round cross section.
6. Explain the function and the morphology of wood rays.
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Wood rays are strips of short horizontal cells that extend in a radial direction across the growth rings.
The function of the wood rays is to store and to distribute horizontally the food material of the tree.
Hardwood rays are commonly with a rectangular shape, Short upright or square ray cells. Their
arrangement is one important criteria for specie identification. Softwood rays are out of one or many
cells in height but are usually only one cell wide (uniseriate). The cells composing softwood rays may be
either ray parenchyma or ray tracheids. Radial tracheids are with thick walls and bordered pits. Radial
parenchyma cells are thin-walled, and commonly no pitting. When a ray contains a resin canal, it is known
as a fusiform ray.

Ring porous: The diameter of the pores in the earlywood is much greater than the diameter of the pores
in the latewood.

Semi-ring porous: The pores in the earlywood are more numerous and distinctly larger than those in the
latewood.

Diffuse porous: The pores of the earlywood and latewood are approximately the same size.

8. Give the main morphological differences between fibres and vessels

Fibres: produced by fusiform of the cambium, round cross-section, shorter than softwood
tracheid, thick-walled, with bordered pits
Vessels are always longitudinal and are much larger diameter than other type of cells, thin-walled. Out of
vessel elements (short) linked end to end. Vessel elements are perforated and linked to each other by
perforation plates.

9. What is reaction wood? Explain the difference between compression and tension wood.
▶Reaction wood:
Response to a triggering event. It may be formed if the main stem of a tree is tipped from the vertical and
it is known to regulate the orientation or angle of branches relative to the main stem. It can also arise in
response to accelerated growth. The function of reaction wood is the same: to bring the stem or branch
back to the original position.
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▶In softwood = compression wood

▶In hardwoods = tension wood

Compression wood (on the under side): 30% shorter tracheids, higher lignin content, higher
proportion of LW, extrem longitudinal shrinkage, higher density.

Tension wood (on the upper side): Higher cellulose content, produce a fuzzy surface
upon processing, collapse, warp or twist during drying, high longitudinal shrinkage, lower strength

1 . Describe the natural cycle of wood degradation in the forest by a simple drawing.

Wood is decomposed by a variety of biological agents, including fungi, bacteria, and insects. Fungi colonize
wood and degrade cell wall components to form brown, soft, or white rot. Brown-rot fungi, which degrade
primarily the polysaccharide components of wood, leave a lignin framework. White-rot fungi may degrade
all cell wall components. Soft-rot fungi erode the secondary wall or form discrete cavities within the cell
wall. Bacteria can directly attack wood to cause erosion, cavitation, and tunneling patterns of
deterioration.
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2. What are the 4 main factors to control to avoid a wood decay by fungi or insects?

Living organism, wood nutrients, temperature, wood moisture content. First, Keep the wood product dry.
Second, where it is not possible to keep wood dry, wood should be treated with chemicals. Third, to use
naturally decay-resistant species rather than using preservative-treated wood.

3. What is the blue stain? What are the consequences of the blue stain attack?

Blue stain fungi is a vague term including various fungi that cause dark staining in sapwood. The staining is
most often blue, but could also be grey or black. Stain fungi often decrease wood toughness and increase
permeability. This change in permeability can increase the amount of preservative uptake in treated
products, adhesive penetration in glued products, and finish absorption during the final stages of wood
product. The major economic damage caused by the blue stain fungi is aesthetic because of the usually
undesirable discoloration of wood.

4. What are the main drawbacks of wood preservatives and which alternatives are existing?

Corrosion of metal fasteners, such as nails and truss plates, can be a problem in treated wood where the
moisture content remains high. Heavy oil-type preservatives often retard corrosion, while waterborne
metallics accelerate it. The inorganic preservative chemicals in combination with moisture in wood often
form galvanic cell reactions with metallic fasteners, thereby expediting fastener decomposition. The strength
of wood products is often affected by chemical treatments. Oil-type preservatives undergo no chemical
reaction with the wood that might affect strength, but waterborne salts do react and often weaken wood.
High in-service temperatures can adversely affect the strength of preservative-treated wood and
significantly reduce the strength of fire retardant -treated wood. This phenomenon can be critical in elevated
temperature situations such as roof framing, trusses, and sheathing. Metallic waterborne preservatives also
have problems such as leaching and copper toxicity toward aquatic life.

For the long term, research is ongoing toward developing effective preservatives with reduced
environmental impacts. Much of this research focuses on examination of the molecular biochemistry of
decay fungi. Rapid and accurate fungal identification by methods such as genetic markings or fatty acid
analysis assists in understanding fungal development in situ.

1.Which main chemical compounds are to be found in wood?

Wood is composed principally of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Carbon is dominant element on a weight
basis. In addition, wood contains inorganic compounds known as ash. Ash is containing elements such as
calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, and silicon. The element of wood are combined into a
number of organic polymers: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.
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2.Briefly describe their structure (building blocks, functional groups).

Cellulose is synthesized within living cells from a glucose-based sugar nucleotide. A nucleotide is a compound
derived from combining a sugar with a phosphate group and a base that is a constituent of RNA or DNA.

Other six-carbon sugars, such as galactose and mannose, and five - carbon sugars, such as xylose and
arabinose are manufactured in the leaves. These and other sugar derivatives such as glucuronic acid, along
with glucose, are used within developing cells in synthesizing lower weight polysaccharides called
hemicelluloses.

Lignin is a complex and high- molecular. Although composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, lignin is not
a carbohydrate nor even related to this class of compound. It is essentially phenolic in nature.

3. Explain the ultrastructural arrangement of lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses in wood cell walls

Cellulose is not incorporated into the cell wall as individual molecules but rather as complicated arranged
clusters of molecules. The long-chain cellulose molecules are synthesized from anhydroglucose in many
specific locations at the inner surface of the cell wall itself. As these chains lengthen, they aggregate laterally
in a well- defined way with their immediate neighbors to form crystalline domains in a unit cell configuration.
The cellulose crystal lattice is held together by intermolecular and dipolar interactions primarily in the form
of hydrogen bonds; this arrangement is so stable that the individual chains cannot be dissolved in common
solvents such as water or acetone. Cellulose can be dissolved in very exotic, highly polarsolvents capable of
disrupting hydrogen bonds.

The hemicelluloses interact through hydrogen bonding with the cellulose and it has a role in the aggregation
of elementary fibrils into microfibrils. Hemicelluloses are known to sheathe the microfibrillar bundles.
Moreover, the hemicelluloses are chemically linked to lignin macromolecules and thus fulfill a particularly
important function in maintaining cohesion between the architectural building materials of the wood cell
wall.

The way in which lignin is incorporated into the cell wall represents another area of disagreement among
scientists. The long-standing view is that lignin is deposited between microfibrils during and after the wall
thickening process. Another view is that lignin is placed in a lamellar configuration between the
microfibrils.

4.Give numbers (in percentage) for the content of lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses in softwood and
hardwood
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5. Briefly explain the orientation of cellulose fibrils in the different layers of a softwood latewood tracheid
and the consequences for mechanical properties on a cellular level.

The first few microfibrils that are synthesized as the secondary wall starts to form are laid down in a
particular way. They are spiraled around the cell interior, with the long axes of the microfibrils nearly
perpendicular to the long axis of the cell. After a few layers form in this way, the orientation begins to change.
Microfibrils spiral about the cell at a much smaller angle to the cell axis. Just prior to final development of
thecell, a change in orientation again occurs, with the last several layers arranged similarly
to the first few layers.

High microfibril angle significantly affects both strength and directional shrinkage properties of wood. It is
creating concerns about the presence of juvenile wood in lumber and other structural and nonstructural
wood products. Microfibril angle is equally important in the raw materials used in making paper, with test
results showing paper tensile strength, stretch, modulus of elasticity, stiffness, and moisture-induced
expansion in refined and unrefined pulps also significantly impacted by microfibril angle.

6.What are pits? What is function of these pits?

All types of cells are characterized by secondary wall layers that are not continuous. Instead, walls are
interrupted by regions in which the secondary portion of the wall is lacking. Known as pits, these regions
generally appear quite different in parenchyma as compared with other kinds of cells. Pits that mark the
walls of parenchyma cells are called simple pits. Note that whereas secondary wall material is lacking in
the pit zone, the primary walls of the two adjacent cells remain. The primary walls and the thin layer of
intercellular material that separates them form the pit membrane. This is called a bordered pit, so named
because the pit aperture appears to be surrounded by a border when viewed frontally.

Pits in the secondary cell wall of water conducting elements play an important role in water transport in
living plants. They allow the flow of water and nutrients from one element to another, linking water uptake
in roots with transpiration in leaves.

7.Explain what the chemical difference between cellulose and hemicelluloses. For which wood properties
are this both type of compound responsible?
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Complex and separate mechanisms are thought to control initiation of cellulose-chain formation, chain
elongation, and termination of the synthesis process. The net effect of these processes is that glucose
molecules are joined together end to end, with elimination of a water molecule for each chemical linkage
formed between neighboring units. The ensuing linear longchain polymer, cellulose (C6H10O5)n, has a
degree of polymerization, n, which may be as large as 10,000. Hemicelluloses are synthesized in a
sequence similar to that outlined above, but they start from a different nucleotide. It is important to note
that fructose may convert to glucose for use in synthesis of cellulose, or to mannose, or to other sugars
used in making hemicellulose or other compounds. Most of the hemicelluloses are branched-chain
polymers, in contrast to the straight -chain polymer cellulose, and generally are made up of sugar units
numbering only in the hundreds

8. Why do trees synthesize extractives?

Extractives are a normal part of the plant’s system of protecting its wood. Extractives are formed by cells
at the heartwood–sapwood boundary and it exuded through pits into adjacent cells. In this way, dead cells
can become occluded or infiltrated with extractives despite the fact that these cells lack the ability to
synthesize or accumulate these compounds on their own. Most importantly, extractives lend the tree
many of its characteristics, including durability from insect damage, fungi, and other microorganisms.

7. Give the molecules and functional groups involved in swelling of wood and explain the phenomena
at the molecular level

Shrinking of the cell wall, and therefore of the whole wood, occurs as bound- water molecules escape from
between the hemicellulose and long-chain cellulose molecules. These chain molecules then move closer
together. The amount of shrinkage that occurs is proportional to the amount of water removed from the
cell wall. Swelling is simply the reverse of this process. Cellulose is the major polymer responsible for wood
swelling.

1. How does water inside of wood affect its properties?

As wood dries below the FSP, loses bound water and it shrinks. Conversely, as water enters the cell wall
structure, the wood swells. This dimensional change is a completely reversible process in small pieces of
stress-free wood. In wood panel products such as fiberboard and particleboard, however, the process is
often not completely reversible. This results, in part, from the compression that wood fi bers or particles
undergo during the manufacturing process. In large pieces of solid wood, dimensional change may not be
completely reversible because of internal drying stresses. Shrinking of the cell wall, and therefore of the
whole wood, occurs as bound- water molecules escape from between the hemicellulose and long-chain
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cellulose molecules. cell lumen diameter remains approximately constant while the cell wall shrinks and
swells.

2.Describe two different methods to measure the moisture content of wood.

The most reliable method of determining the moisture content is to weigh the wet sample, dry it in an
oven at 103 ± 2 °C for 24 hours to drive off all water, and then reweigh it. For samples greater than 25mm
(1in.), the time should be increased and drying should stop when the samples reach constant weight.

One of the most commonly used handheld meters for lumber is the resistance – type moisture meter,
which measures the electrical resistance between pins driven into the wood.

3. On microscopic and submicroscopic scales: Where is the water located inside the wood?

Please answer this question for a moisture content of 60% and for a moisture content of 10%.

Figure 7.1 may help in visualizing the location of water in a wood cell. As long as there is any liquid
water in the lumen, the wall of the cell will be saturated; that is, it will contain as much water as it can
physically adsorb. Most physical properties of wood are not affected by differences in the amount of
water in the cell lumen. For example, if the lumen is one-fourth full of liquid water, the cell (and the
wood) will have the same strength as when the lumen is one-half full. The green (wet) cell is illustrated
in Figure 7.1A. As green wood begins to dry, water is first removed from the lumen. When wood is
dried to the point that all the water in the lumen is removed, water then begins to leave the cell wall.
Almost all wood products used in buildings or where there is no contact with the ground contain water
in the form shown in Figure 7.1 B.

4.Please describe the relation between the surrounding relative humidity and the resulting moisture
content of wood.
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The equilibrium moisture content of wood is a state corresponding to the air temperature and relative
moisture, in which the moisture content of the wood remains steady. If wood is in equilibrium with the
surrounding environment and the air then becomes drier, the wood will lose water (or desorb) until it
again comes into equilibrium.

5.How does the moisture inside a piece of wood affect its size and its shape?

The relationship between shrinkage and moisture content is essentially linear. Figure 7.8 shows the shape
of this relationship for southern pine. This near linearity makes it relatively simple to estimate shrinkage
between any two moisture contents if the green to oven dry shrinkage values for the wood are known.
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6. Why does it take several days, weeks or even months to dry solid wood? What will happen in case you
dry wood too quickly?

Drying, if carried out promptly after felling of trees, protects timber against primary decay, fungal stain and
attack by certain kinds of insects. If we dry it too aggressively, lumber can become checked, split,
honeycombed. Drying too slowly can also cause economic loss, decreased throughput, and degrading by
mold and stain.

7. How does the anatomical structure of wood affect its density on the microscopic and macroscopic level?

Density decreases as moisture content decreases. The rate of growth is used to estimate density in the
grading of several types of lumber products. The fewer the growth rings per unit length, the higher the
density and, therefore, the higher the grade. An inverse relationship exists between the void volume of wood
porosity and density because the density of dry cell wall substance is approximately the same for all species.

8.What else does affect the density of wood?

Wood density varies greatly within any species because of a number of factors. These include location in a
tree, geographic location within the range of the species, site condition (soil, water, and slope), and genetic
source.

9.Describe the stresses and strain in a uniformly loaded wooden beam.

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1.When a beam is loaded, the top half is stressed in axial compression and the bottom half is stressed in
axial tension. The maximum stresses develop at the outer top and bottom extreme surfaces of the beam.

2.It is assumed that the stresses vary in a linear manner from the top to bottom surface as shown in Figure

3.No tension or compression stresses occur at mid-depth in a rectangular beam of uniform section. This
central plane, free of compression or tension, is termed the neutral axis.

4.Because no tensile or compressive stresses develop at the neutral axis of the beam, the length of the
neutral axis remains the same when the beam is loaded. The top surface of the beam is shortened and the
bottom surface is lengthened as a result of the compression and tension stresses.

5.The amount of bending from initial position is termed deflection. In a simply supported uniformly or
centrally loaded beam, the maximum deflection occurs at mid -length.

10.How does the strength of wood depend on temperature and moisture content?
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As wood dries below the fiber saturation point, most strength and elastic properties increase. The increase
in strength begins as the moisture level drops to slightly below the fiber saturation point, usually around 25–
30 percent MC.

Most mechanical properties decrease when wood is heated and increase when it is cooled. This temperature
effect is shown in Figure 9.14 for wood at 12percent MC and when oven-dry. As long as temperatures do not
exceed 100°C, there is little permanent loss of strength in the wood. Exposure to high temperatures for long
periods can cause permanent strength loss.

11.How does the grain direction affect the strength of wood?

Reconstitution tends to reduce the maximum strength as compared with the parallel- to -grain direction
for solid wood. Products laminated parallel to grain such as parallel-laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and
glulam beams are as strong as the highest grades of lumber. Their design values are often even higher than
those of comparably sized solid lumber. The strength of the wood is fundamentally affected by the
direction in which it is loaded in relation to the grain. In the direction of the grain, the bending strength is
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directly proportional to the density of the wood. In uniform, flawless wood, the bending strength is as
great as the tensile strength. Tensile strength in the direction of the grain is usually 10-20 times more than
its strength perpendicular to the grain.

Factors Affecting the Strength of Clear Wood

Moisture Content

Temperature

Time
The strength of wood does not decrease greatly over time unless the product is subjected to continuous
high levels of loading, the effects of microorganisms, high temperature, drastic moisture fluctuation, strong
chemicals, or some other external detractor.

Fatigue
The fatigue strength of a material is its ability to retain its strength when subjected to
cyclic loading. wood subjected to 60 percent of its predicted strength will sustain approximately 2 million
cycles of bending. As compared with other materials such as steel and aluminum, wood exhibits excellent
fatigue performance. Compared with these other materials, wood does not get tired. Cyclic stress may
have a more severe effect when defects such as knots are present or when slope of grain is involved.

Reaction Wood
The irregular effects of reaction wood in structural lumber on mechanical properties significantly limit its
utility value. While the density of this abnormal wood is often higher than normal wood, its tension
strength and bending strength are often unpredictably low.

Exposure to Chemicals
The strength of wood may be reduced by exposure to severe acidic or alkaline environments; yet wood is
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more resistant than steel to acidic conditions. Chemical deterioration of the cell wall can result in loss of
strength from hydrolysis of cellulose, oxidation, or delignification by alkalis.

Factors Affecting the Strength of Lumber Products

Knots
Knots are the most common wood characteristic that reduces the strength of lumber. The
effect of a knot is often considered equivalent to that of a hole. The amount that a knot reduces strength
depends not only on the size of the knot but
also on its location in the piece.

Decay
Decay is generally prohibited in grades of lumber used for structural purposes because it is often
impossible to estimate by visual inspection the extent to which decay has weakened the
piece. By the time decay is visually apparent, loss in strength may be severe.

Slope of Grain
Slope of grain in lumber is expressed as the length through which a deviation in the
grain occurs. The strength of wood is affected whenever there is slope of grain greater than about 1:20.