An experimental study on efficient physical wood modification for enhanced permeability – focusing on ultrasonic and microwave treatments

ABSTRACT

This study discusses efficient physical wood modification to enhance permeability. Ultrasonic and microwave treatments were chosen as methods for physical wood modification. Indonesian momala (Homalium foetidum) and Korean red toon (Toona sinensis) were supplied for this study. We conducted 150-Wh microwave and ultrasonic treatments of two species. Then, specimen pore size and porosity were analyzed. After treatment of momala and red toon with ultrasonic and microwave, their pore sizes and through-pore porosities significantly increased, leading to their enhanced gas permeability. After ultrasonic and microwave treatments, the gas permeability of momala increased by 57.9% and 82.8%, respectively. In red toon, the gas permeability increased by 98.7% for ultrasonic treatment and 132.9% for microwave treatment. These results show that microwave treatment was more effective in improving permeability than was ultrasonic treatment when the same amount of electricity was used.

KEYWORDS:

• Homalium foetidum
• Toona sinensis
• ultrasonic treatment
• microwave treatment
• gas permeability
• through-pore porosity

Acknowledgements

The authors are also thankful to ‘The Business Startup Incubator Support Program’ supported by the Ministry of Education and National Research Foundation of Korea. This manuscript is a reorganization of Eun-Suk Jang’s doctoral thesis from Jeonbuk National University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education [grant number: NRF-2019R1I1A3A02059471] and was supported under the framework of an international cooperation program managed by the NRF of Korea [grant number: NRF-2020K2A9A2A08000181].