Research on better use of wood for sustainable development: Quantitative evaluation of good tactile warmth of wood

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Wood is a prospective material against the problems of mineral resource shortage and global warming from the viewpoint of sustainable development. The continuous cycle of felling, planting and growing of trees is essential prerequisite for sustainability. The engineering evaluation of advantages of wood can increase its use more widely as a substitute for other industrial materials and save the finite mineral resources. The increase of wood use can support the continuous cycle for the sustainable forestry as an industry. This paper treats good tactile warmth of wood as one of its advantages. The relationship between contact surface temperature and thermal effusivity is derived from the theoretical analysis of governing heat transfer phenomenon on tactile warmth. Some knowledge on tactile warmth of wood is reviewed with these physical properties. The sensory tactile warmth of wood has a high and positive linear correlation with the logarithm of the contact surface temperature. The materials with lower thermal effusivity feel warmer than the ones with higher thermal effusivity. The relationship between contact surface temperature and thermal effusivity explains rationally why each wood has a large difference of tactile warmth in spite of their small difference of material properties. It also explains the reason why wood has good tactile warmth regardless of seasons against metals, which feel too hot in summer and too cold in winter to touch. The contact surface temperature and the thermal effusivity are proposed as engineering measures to evaluate the tactile warmth of wood and other materials.