Moisture loss from wood products during drying - Part I: Moisture diffusivities and moisture transfer coefficients

This study deals with the development of an analytical technique for determining the moisture diffusivities and moisture transfer coefficients for wood products subjected to drying. The wood products are idealized in the modeling as either infinite plates or long cylinders. The analysis of transient moisture diffusion is carried out on the basis of two important practical criteria: 0.1 < Bi < 100 and Bi > 100. The drying coefficients and lag factors were incorporated into the models. The developed analytical models are then verified by experimental measurements taken from the literature. Results show that the method presented here is capable of accurately determining the moisture diffusivities and moisture transfer coefficients for such objects. The models can be used for a variety of wood-drying applications.