ABSTRACT
To evaluate the effect of temperature and air velocity on drying rate, slash pine wood pieces of 25 x 125 x 750 mm were dried in semi-industrial kiln with forced convection. The process was conduct for two temperatures and two air velocities and controlled by a data acquisition system. The results showed that the drying rate has a direct relationship to temperature, air velocity and wood moisture content. Through multiple regression analysis it was possible to detect statistically significant effect of temperature and air velocity on drying rate and drying time, at 99% confidence level. Since the influence of air velocity on wood drying decreases with moisture content, because of economic reasons, more investigations were suggested about the relationship between the two variables during falling-rate drying period.
Key words:
drying rate; wood moisture content; air velocity; drying temperature