Analysis of the Influence of Microwave Treatment Parameters of Wood

Abstract

Microwave (MW) treatment is an effective method in the wood modification field. It has become more popular in the past decade since it enhances wood permeability, allowing a more efficient impregnation of preservative chemicals. Due to the number of parameters involved in the MW treatment of wood, multiple regression models and statistical analysis can effectively evaluate the relationship between various parameters. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the effects that the isolated and combined parameters of the MW treatment had on the variations of the flexural modulus of rupture (MOR) after wood specimens were MW-treated. The analyzed variables and their respective data were obtained from works on the use of MW technology for wood treatment present in the literature. Even faced with the reduced database, sufficient information was available to be used and important and accurate results were drawn. Based on the ANOVA results, wood density, initial moisture content (IMC), MW applied energy, and the product between MW power and exposure time were considered significant and could distinctly explain the reductions in the MOR values of MW-treated wood samples.