This study was carried to provide basic data for the research of the effect of PEG impregnation on preventing wood from cracking during heat treatment. Three popular softwood species were selected for investigating the PEG penetration rate and retention depending on PEG molecular
A large diameter roundwood is an important element of Korean traditional buildings, Hanok, and is hard to be dried without surface cracks. Four different pretreatments, such as pre-cracking, oil heating, kerfing-oil heating and PEG impregnation, were investigated for reducing the surface cracks of large-diameter roundwood specimens during heat treatment. The roundwood specimens of pre-cracking, oil heating and kerfing-oil heating showed surface cracks during pretreatment, but that of PEG impregnation did not. It was confirmed that kerfing reduced the total crack width. Among the four pretreatments and control only the PEG impregnation roundwood specimen had no crack on both outer and inner surfaces after heat treatment. The PEG impregnation specimen shrank only 1.6% in the tangential direction while the pre-cracking did 8.0%.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.