Characterizing hydro-thermal compression

behavior of aspen wood strands- A critique

The paper titled “Characterizing hydro-thermal compression behavior of aspen wood strands”

[1] was published in 2009 in the journal Holzforschung, by Chen Zhou, a PhD from the Wood

science department at the University of British Columbia (UBC). This work is part of a five-paper

series as a result of his graduate studies at UBC supervised by Dr. Chunping Dai and Dr.

Gregory Smith. This paper tried to address the unknown transverse compression behavior at

elevated temperatures and different moisture contents for Aspen strands, which have not been

studied before, making it appropriate at relevant, especially as the final goal was to simulate the

hot-pressing process of Oriented Strand Board (OSB), a process that is critical in the

manufacturing of this kind of products.

To characterize the compression behavior of the strands, the paper starts presenting a good

fundamental theory about how wood behaves in compression and what phenomena is involved

during it, as well as what are the basic governing equations to capture it. Although the

explanation of the phenomena is good and easy to follow, the author presents some boundaries

for the linear elastic, cell wall buckling and cell wall densification zones in an idealized plot; this

is good to understand the phenomenon, but later in the paper he used these arbitrary

boundaries to compare the results, with no base of from where or how he defined those

boundaries.
In line with the main objective of the paper, the authors show a solid methodology to test the

Temperature and moisture content effect on the Elastic modulus and strain function: they used

sliced veneer to have a constant thickness with not crack in the surfaces, different levels of

moisture content and temperature, and using a small press with a load cell and external

displacement transducer, to accurately measure load and strain. Also, 15 replicates were made

for each combination. Although the proposed experiment seems right and with a good number

of replicates, the authors did not test for fiber saturation point (FSP). This is important because

during the heating process, the sorption dynamics will change, so a wood piece kept at a

determined moisture content probably will change its moisture from bound water to free water,

going above the FSP, in which moisture content does not affect the physical and mechanical

properties. This can be reflected in the experimental design, where the authors had to discard

results at higher temperatures and moisture content because there was marked evidence of

moisture transport during the pressing test. Also, the authors mention that the effect of moisture

is not as significant as that of temperature, probably because the presence of free water in the

samples at higher moisture content and temperatures.

Regarding the variation of the results, the authors mention that the strands were selected

randomly to minimize the effect of density variations, which could be an approach, but also that

adds more variability to the results, and could be better controlled by selecting specimens with

similar density to reduce the variability. Also, although the authors count with a significant
number of replicates, there is no mention of a statistical analysis carried out, which could help to

identify if there was a significant effect of each parameter and their interaction.

To solve the problem regarding the unknown FSP at higher temperatures, an experiment is

presented here. The main idea is to utilize a testing machine equipped with an environmental

chamber to make non-destructive 3-point bending tests at different temperatures, to calculate

MOE. The relationship between moisture content and MOE will have a different behavior before

and after FSP, so it can be determined. Five specimens for the radial direction and five sample

for the tangential direction are suggested for each temperature, as in accordance with the

standard ASTM D790-17 [2], with dimensions of 12.7 mm wide, 3.2mm thick and 127mm long.

The specimens should be cut from oven dried wood, preferably from a clear section and close

together, to reduce variability of factors not tested. Then the specimens should be conditioned

at the required temperature and moisture content. After conditioning, the specimen is weighed,

placed in the environmental chamber at the required temperature and the MOE test is

performed and calculated. After that, the specimen is removed, and reconditioned to a lower

moisture content and the procedure is repeated for all the moisture content levels. Then, the

moisture content in which the MOE does not change with added moisture content, is the fiber

saturation point at that temperature. The temperature level goes from 20C to 110C in 30C

intervals, and the moisture content will be changed from 0% to 50% in 5% intervals.

The proposed experiment will show a reduction in FSP with increasing temperature, as has

been noted by other authors [3], with a reduction of 0.1% per degree Celsius, although it is
expected that for higher temperatures the FSP reduction will be even higher, showing an

exponential trend. This type of experiment was selected over other methods such as DSC

scanning [4] because it calculates the FSP at 0C and then is corrected for temperature, while

the idea is here is to show the effect of temperature in FSP.

Knowing the values of FSP at different temperatures, suitable moisture contents could be

selected that are below the FSP, to analyze better its effect on the transverse compression

behavior of wood strands.

References

[1] Zhou C, Smith GD, Dai C. Characterizing hydro-thermal compression behavior of aspen
wood strands. Holzforschung 2009; 63:609–17.
[2] ASTM D790-17, Standard Test Methods for Flexural Properties of Unreinforced and
Reinforced Plastics and Electrical Insulating Materials, ASTM International, West
Conshohocken, PA, 2017, www.astm.org.
[3] Kelsey, K. E. The sorption of water vapour by wood. Austr. J. Appl. 1957, Sci. 8:42-49
[4] Simpson, L.A., Barton, A.F.M. Determination of the fibre saturation point in whole wood using
differential scanning calorimetry. Wood Sci. Technol. 25:301-208 (1991).