The Differential Thermal Response of Knots and Clear Wood Following Rapid Heating

Abstract This study correlated the differential clear wood versus knot wood thermal response to rapid heating for 12 wood species to differences in specific gravity, equilibrium moisture content, extractives content, and microfibril angle. It was found that the relative levels of these variables explain much of the observed difference in clear vs. knot wood temperature following rapid heating. Rapid heating resulted in cooler knot wood temperatures which differ from hotter knot wood temperatures found by previous researchers for longer-term heating. Keywords: extractives contentknotsmicrofibril anglemoisture contentspecific gravitythermal propertiesthermography Notes ∗Capital letters in parentheses indicate results of comparison-of-means tests. Values with the same letter did not differ significantly at the 0.05 level.