Bartłomiej Hryniewicki
supervisor: Michał Bartyś
The drying process of wood has been studied and described for many years. Very complex physical and chemical phenomena are taking place during the wood drying process. This was the main reason why the accurate model of this process was not available. Therefore, in practice, the wood drying process is commonly performed by experienced operators. They typically take care of keeping the approximately constant speed of the drying process. However, this strategy significantly extends the duration of the drying process and increases the consumption of energy. On the other hand, this strategy ensures the demanded quality of the wood.
The early stage of performed research was devoted to developing the physical model of the water and temperature flows in the wood during the drying process.
Next, the water and temperature flow simulation has been implemented by means of the finite element approach. This model is useful for predicting and tracking the drying process. However, it does not allows for having direct insight into the internal wood stress distribution and specific energy consumption. Regarding the aim and topic of the dissertation, these issues are crucial for further works. Therefore, soon the functionality of the developed model will be extended.
These actions will allow for developing a process control strategy that hopefully significantly increases the wood's final quality while reducing time and energy consumption.