A dual-scale computational model of kiln wood drying including single board and stack level simulation

This article proposes a dual-scale computational model of wood drying in a batch lumber kiln. The stack may consist of a large number of boards (typically 100) arranged in layers. Each single board of the stack is simulated using one module of TransPore, a comprehensive computational model for heat and mass transfer in porous media. Timber variability is taken into account by a Monte-Carlo method. Such a dual-scale model allows the drying simulation of a 100-board stack to be completed in less than 30s on a PC with a 2.8-GHz Xeon processor. Sample simulations are presented to depict the great potential and prospects of this new tool.