Same Recovery Level of Compressed Chinese Fir Wood Can Be Obtained Through Different Heating Fixation Pathways

The recovery of compression set (RS) of wood after dry heating or steam treatment mainly depends on the temperature and time of treatment. For quantitative elucidation, a graph of intermediate RS was built with temperature (T) and time (t) as coordinates. In this graph (abbreviated as T-t planum), a series of curves of RS were created. This leads to a conclusion that same RS can be obtained by numerous different pathways. Further research on pathway equivalency based on T-t planum indicates that a low RS of 10% can be achieved definitely by different combinations of time and temperature. However, the fixation mechanism varies at different temperatures. On the equivalent pathways of higher recovery, the influence of temperature must be taken into consideration. The actual routes must be somewhat modified to achieve an expected result. This makes it possible for us to work out a best fixation pathway among all the possibilities, to eliminate the impact of heat on the mechanical properties of wood.