Moisture Content Change of Korean Red Pine Logs During Air Drying: II. Prediction of Moisture Content Change of Korean Red Pine Logs under Different Air Drying Conditions

Abstract

Air drying was carried out on 15 Korean red pine logs to provide a prediction model of the moisture content (MC) change in the wood during drying. The final MC was 17.4% after 880 days since the beginning of air drying in the summer for 6 Korean red pine logs with 68.7% initial MC. The final MC was 16.0% after 760 days since the beginning of air drying in the winter for 9 Korean red pine logs with 35.8% initial MC. A regression model with R-squared of 0.925 was obtained as a result of multiple regression analyses with initial MC, top diameter, temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed as independent variable and and MC change during air drying as dependent variable. The initial MC and top diameter, which is the characteristic of Korean red pine, have greater effect on the MC decrease during air drying compared to meteorological factors such as the temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. Two-dimensional mass transfer analysis was performed to predict the MC distribution of Korean red pine logs during air drying. Two prediction models with different air drying days and different meteorological factors for the determination of the diffusion coefficient and surface emission coefficient were presented. The error between the different two methods ranged from 0.1 to 0.8% and the difference from the measured value ranged from 2.2 to 3.6%. By measuring the internal MC during air drying of Korean pine logs with various initial MC and diameter, and calculating the moisture transfer coefficient in wood for each meteorological condition, the error of the prediction model can be reduced.