Examination of moisture content variation within an operational wet deck

Abstract

Many forest products companies in the southeastern United States store large volumes of roundwood under wet storage. Log quality depends on maintaining a high and constant wood moisture content; however, limited knowledge exists regarding moisture variation within individual logs, and within wet decks as a whole, making it impossible to recommend appropriate water application strategies. To better understand moisture variation within a wet deck, time domain reflectometry (TDR) was used to monitor the moisture variation of 30 southern pine logs over an 11-week period for a wet deck at the International Paper McBean woodyard. Three 125 mm long TDR probes were inserted into each log (before the deck was built) at 3, 4.5, and 7.5 m from the butt. The position of each log within the stack was also recorded. Mixed-effects analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine moisture variation over the study period. Moisture content varied within the log, while position within the stack was generally not significant. The performance of the TDR probes was consistent throughout the study, indicating that they would be suitable for long term (e.g., 12 months) monitoring.