Louis Gastonguay

A high-temperature thermal treatment of wood using a multiscale computational model: application to wood poles.

The present study is devoted to a numerical study with experimental validation of the high-temperature thermal treatment of three-dimensional wood pole. During the heat treatment process, the heat and mass transfer takes place between the solid and the drying medium, and the moisture evaporation occurs within the solid due to the capillarity action and diffusion. The development of the model equations, taking into account both bulk phases and interfaces of the multiphase system is described, starting from the microscopic scale. Fundamental to this model is the ability to quantify the effects of key material and geometric properties of the pole. The three-dimensional and unsteady-state mathematical model equations are solved numerically by the commercial package FEMLAB for the temperature and moisture content histories under different treatment conditions. A detailed discussion of the computational model and the solution algorithm is given. Heat treatment was applied on the test samples in an oven for three final temperatures (180, 200 and 220 degrees C). A series of experimental tests aimed at determination of heat treatment schedules kinetics curves and the temperature and moisture profiles and there time evolution were carried out. A very good agreement between the experimental and predicted results was obtained, implying that the proposed numerical algorithm can be used as a useful tool in designing high-temperature wood pole treatment processes.

Thermal treatment of electrical poles.

Thermal treatment is used to preserve the wood without any addition of any toxic chemicals. This process increases the dimensional stability and darkens the color of the wood. The improvement of the resistance to decay of wood by thermal treatment is also often suggested in the literature. However, some latest works contested if the durability of heat-treated wood is improved when it is used in contact with ground. The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of thermally treating electrical poles which are larger compared to the standard wood lumber. One of the applications for thermally treated wood poles could be their use in environmental sensitive areas (along rivers, for example) as a replacement for untreated western red cedar (WRC) poles which are more expensive. Green and pre-dried red pine (Pinus resinosa) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana) poles, both with circular and square cross-sections, were heated to high temperatures under humid and inert atmosphere. Operating parameters such as maximum treatment temperature, maintenance time at this temperature, heating rate and gas humidity were varied in order to find most suitable treatment conditions for the poles. The tests showed that most of the cracks are formed during the drying process while thermal treatment only widened already existing cracks. The circular shape seems to promote crack formation during the drying period since the directional dependence of shrinking creates more stresses in circular poles compared to the square poles. A slight decrease in flexibility of the wood with increasing temperatures was observed. The protecting effect of gas humidity against oxidation of wood and the importance of the application of a moderate heating rate for poles with large cross-sections are also demonstrated in this article. The impact of the heat treatment on the resistance to decay of electrical wood pole will be presented in a future publication.