Abstract:

Different wood modification methods have been developed to improve some properties of wood. The heat treatment method, which is applied by treating the wood with a temperature of 180-220oC, is one of these methods. Today, many heat treatment methods have been developed, consisting of different treatment steps and using different heat transfer media. Many factors are effective on the changes in the technological properties of wood by heat treatment. The heat transfer media is one of these factors. In this study, nitrogen gas was used as heat transfer media and poplar wood was used as material. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of heat treatment in nitrogen gas atmosphere and normal atmosphere on the physical properties of wood. In this study, 1 control group and 3 experimental groups were formed. Different procedures were applied to these 4 test groups. No heat treatment was applied to the control group. Heat treatment was done in a vacuum oven. The processing temperature was set at 210oC and the processing time was 3 hours. The effect of temperature was tried to be determined with the 2nd group, the effect of nitrogen gas with the 3rd group, and the effect of the pretreatment with nitrogen gas with the 4th group. After heat treatment, physical properties such as density, equilibrium moisture content, tangential, radial, longitudinal and volumetric swelling percentages and swelling anisotropy of poplar wood were determined. According to the findings obtained; it has been determined that the heat treatment carried out both in the normal atmosphere and in the nitrogen gas atmosphere has a statistically significant effect on the physical properties of the poplar wood.

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