Evidence of Dual Scale Porous Mechanisms During Fluid Migration in Hardwood Species (Ⅱ) A Dual Scale Computational Model to Describe the Experimental Results

The second part of this paper is devoted to the computational modelling of transient water migration in hardwood. During re-saturation, the moisture content, measured during the process by using X-ray attenuation (see part 1 of this paper), increases quickly very close to the cavity, but requires a very long time for the remaining part of the sample to absorb the moisture in wetting. For this configuration and this material, the macroscopic approach fails. Consequently, a dual-porosity approach is proposed. The computational domain uses a 2-D axisymmetric configuration for which the axial coordinate represents the macroscopic longitudinal direction of the sample whereas the radial coordinate allows the slow migration from each active vessel towards the fibre zone to be considered. The latter is a microscopic space variable. The moisture content field evolution depicts clearly the dual scale mechanisms:a very fast longitudinal migration in the vessel followed by a slow migration from the vessel towards the fibre zone.The macroscopic moisture content field resulting from this dual scale mechanism is in quite good agreement with the experimental data.

Evidence of Dual Scale Porous Mechanisms During Fluid Migration in Hardwood Species (Ⅰ) Using the Attenuation of a Aolychromatic X-ray Beam to Determine the Evolution of Moisture Content During Imbibition of Beech

An experimental device able to determine the moisture content of wood usingX-ray attenuation is used to study the imbibition of beech samples (Fagus silvatica). The apparatusincludes an X-ray generator, a protective tube, collimating plates and a 50 mm detector. Detectedparticles can be categorised by energy (accuracy of the order of 20%) or by position (accuracy 100μm). The independent choice of both the energy spectrum (through the voltage) and the counting rate(through the current intensity) makes the installation very flexible. However, a rigorous treatmentis necessary to deal with the attenuation of a polychromatic spectrum. The appropriate calculationsare presented and validated with homogeneous samples made of wood and water. In addition, someresults are presented with samples heterogeneous in density and moisture content. Finally, theexperimental device is used to study the evolution of moisture content during saturationexperiments, for which the moisture migration is mainly due to capillary forces. The geometricalconfiguration was so arranged that the transfer can be studied in two directions simultaneously.