Density Determination of Wood Chips Using Silica Powder

Abstract

This work reports the application of powder pycnometry in density measurement of 'granular material instead of the traditional liquid pycnometry. Fine dense silica powder was employed as fluid in an experimental set up to measure the density of wood chips taken as porous media. In order to verify the validity and efficiency of the proposed method, the dtnsity of soybean (Gbcinc mar L. Merryl) was also measured. The results of soybean density using ethanol as fluid were compared with the proposed method, obtaining a relative deviation of 7.74%. Relative deviations between the samples of wood chips varied from 1.99% to 7.04%, which indicates that the silica method is efficient in determining the density of porous bodies. Liquid pycnometry technique using paraffin covering did not present satisfactory results.