Comparison on the Aging of Woods Exposed to Natural Sunlight and Artificial Xenon Light

Abstract

To investigate the relationship between sunlight and artificial light sources on the weathering of wood, three woods, namely, Tectona grandis L.F. (teak), Stereospermum colais (mabberley), and Dicorynia guianensis (basralocus), were tested under natural sunlight for 733 days and artificial xenon light for 180 h, respectively. A comparison between sunlight and artificial xenon light was made based on surface color changes at various intervals. The results showed that the woods suffered from more severe aging in the artificial xenon light exposure than that in the natural sunlight exposure. At the early stage of exposure, very good relationships were found between 70 days under natural sunlight weathering and 60 h under artificial xenon light weathering. Compared with natural sunlight, about a 30 times faster aging process was identified in the artificial xenon light. However, the linear relationship vanished at the later aging stage. It was found that the color change fluctuated in natural sunlight, while it increased steadily in artificial xenon light. The wood species affected the aging of woods. In natural sunlight exposure, the color change decreased in the order of mabberley > teak > basralocus, while in artificial xenon light exposure, color change decreased in the order of mabberley > basralocus > teak due to the easier volatilization of extractives in artificial xenon light than in natural sunlight.