Luís Teixeira de Lemos

Equilibrium moisture content and timelag of dead Pinus pinaster needles

Modelling adsorption and desorption processes and equilibrium moisture content of dead fine fuels below fibre saturation is required to provide an accurate prediction of their drying and wetting processes within the range where flammability increases rapidly with decreasing moisture content. Data from laboratory tests on sorption processes and equilibrium moisture content isotherms of dead Pinus pinaster (Ait.) needles were used to evaluate several models applicable to fine forest fuels and agricultural and food products. Laboratory and field data were used to assess model accuracy in predicting drying and wetting curves and equilibrium moisture content isotherms showing a medium to high predictive ability for almost all cases. The best fitting combinations were obtained with the application of agricultural and food products models for drying and wetting phases and fine forest fuel models for equilibrium moisture content determination.