Estimating moisture content variation in kiln dried Pacific coast hemlock

Abstract

Abstract Kiln drying is admittedly a significant value-adding step in timber processing where the importance of predicting moisture within a dried batch cannot be overemphasized. This study predicts and characterizes the moisture variation in kiln-dried wood based on the initial and target moisture values using polynomial models. Four polynomial models are used to correlate initial and final moisture characteristics. First model is linear while the three others are nonlinear. The robustness of the three best models is analyzed and a closed formula is proposed to evaluate the final moisture coefficient of variation based on the target moisture and initial moisture coefficient of variation. Three models could successfully characterize the final moisture variation with the best one showing an R 2 > 96%. However, the first (linear) model is the most resilient and, thus recommended for estimating final moisture variation.