Moisture transfer analysis during drying of slab woods

This article presents an analytical technique for determining the moisture diffusivities and moisture transfer coefficients for slab shaped woods subjects to drying process. 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 are defined for wood-drying applications and incorporated into the models. In order to verify the present models, the model results are compared with experimental measurements taken from the literature and good agreement was found. Results show that the technique presented here is capable of determining the moisture diffusivities and moisture transfer coefficients for slab woods in a simple and accurate manner for practical applications and will be beneficial to the relevant wood drying industries. This approach can be extended to different wood products of regular and irregular shapes.