Possibility of drying oak and ash elements with bark

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the analysis of the possibility of drying oak and ash elements with the presence of tree bark on one side of the element (bark edge). One batch was dried per species, and the process was controlled by moisture content (MC) probes in the kiln, but also determined by the oven-dry method. Drying defects and their causes were also analyzed. The results showed that conventional drying can be used for this purpose - the duration is relatively short (up to 7 days), and the variation of the final MC is relatively small. The main problem is a relatively large number of crooked elements at the end of drying, particularly those where the share of wood in relation to the bark was small. Very high axial shrinkage coefficients of the bark (4.5 times higher than wood) are the cause of these deformations. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. TR 31041 and Grant no. TR 37008]

Keywords

• elements with bark
• drying
• oak
• ash
• shrinkage