Lecture 5:

Physical Properties
of Wood
Wood & water relationship
Shrinkage & swelling
Specific gravity & density

By : Dr. Paiman Bawon

Department of Forest Production
Faculty of Forestry UPM
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Introduction
Wood is a cellular material of biological origin. Even though
it is all around us, it is not as simple as we often think. It is
a very complex material with many properties.

Chemical property
Wood
Structure Mechanical
Physical property property
Density & specific gravity,
hygroscopic, anisotropic,
shrinkage & swelling, MC, Utilization:
EMC, FSP services,
services, performances
performances

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Introduction
 One definition of wood is that it is a hygroscopic,
anisotropic material of biological origin.
 Hygroscopic means that wood adsorbs and desorbs water
from its environment until an equilibrium dependent on ambient
temperature and humidity is reached.
 Anisotropic means that properties of material differ in the three
axial directions.

Wood is highly anisotropic (antonym to isotropic)

isotropic
An isotropic material have similar properties in all direction.

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Introduction
■ The biological origin of wood implies diversity and
variation, between and within species of trees. These
things are among the many factors, which affect wood
properties.
The properties of wood varies:
 between species
 between tree of the same species
 within a tree of different location (horizontally, vertically)
 within a piece of wood of different direction

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Wood & Water Relationship
All wood in growing trees contains a considerable amount of
water which is commonly called sap.
Water is contained in wood as either
bound water or free water.
 Bound water is held within cell
walls by bonding forces between
water and cellulose molecules.
 Free water is contained in the cell
cavities and is not held by these
forces
– it is comparable to water in a pipe

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Wood & Moisture relationship
Moisture Content (MC)
The amount of water in wood expressed as a percent of the
dry weight is called the “Moisture Content” (MC). MC is
calculated with the following formula:
Weight of water in wood
MC (%) = x100
Weight of totally dry wood
The Oven Dry (OD) basis for calculating MC is used with lumber,
plywood, particleboard and other composite products. So, in practical the
MC is calculated with the following formula:

Weight-wet – Weight-OD
MC (%) = x100
Weight-OD
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Wood & Moisture relationship
Water Movement in Wood
■ The hygroscopic nature of wood cause the water
movement, either along the grain or across the grain.
 Free water moves through cell cavities (along the grain) and pit
openings (across the grain). During drying it is moved by
capillary forces that exert a pull on the free water deeper in the
wood.
 Bound water moves as vapor through empty cell cavities (along
the grain) and pit openings (across the grain) as well as directly
through cell walls (across the grain).

■ Water movement along the grain is many times faster

than across the grain.
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Wood & Moisture relationship
Green MC Differences
The MC in living trees (green MC) varies by species
Differences between sapwood and heartwood also exist for
hardwoods and softwoods.
Hardwoods exhibit no green MC
pattern between heart-wood and
sapwood, species variation is
extremely wide.
Softwoods commonly have a
heartwood MC near the FSP which is
much lower than the MC of its
sapwood

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Wood & Moisture relationship
Fiber Saturation Point (FSP)
The Fiber Saturation
Point (FSP) is the point at
which there is no free
water present in the cell
lumens and there is the
maximum amount of
bound water present in the
cell walls.

The FSP is generally considered to be 30%

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Wood & Moisture relationship
Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC)
Once wood has been dried below the FSP, it seldom
regains any free water that would increase the MC above
that point.

Wood loses or gains bound water until the amount it contains is in

balance with that of the surrounding atmosphere.
The amount of water at this point of balance is called the equilibrium
moisture content (EMC), and is always below 30 percent.

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Wood & Moisture relationship
Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC)
The EMC depends on temperature and humidity. Thus it may
differ between one region to the others.
The EMCs in US (temperate region),
for example, are in the range of 6-
11%, but the EMCs at tropical region
is higher (12-19%).

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Wood & Moisture relationship
Influence of wood MC
The following properties of wood are affected by the MC :
● Dimensions
● Thermal Conductivity
● Electrical Resistance Physical properties
● Dielectric Properties
● Decay Resistance
● Strength Mechanical properties

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Shrinkage & Swelling
 Shrinkage and swelling are the cause of many of the
problems that occur in wood during drying and in use,
therefore, an understanding of them will help minimize
such problems.
Splitting, warping, and open joints are examples of problems that
occur due to uneven shrinkage.

When does wood shrink and swell?

 Wood shrinks and swells only with changes in the bound water
content, i.e. below the FSP.
Free water content has no affect on wood dimensions.

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Shrinkage & Swelling
When water begins to leave the cell
shrinkage walls at the fiber saturation point, the
strength walls begin to shrink.
As we remove more and more water, the
wood get stronger at an exponential rate
and shrink at a lineal rate.
0 FSP As we add more and more water, the
(30%) MC
wood will lose strength and swell until
the FSP is reached then nothing more
happens.

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Shrinkage & Swelling
Anisotropic Shrinkage and Swelling
Wood is an anisotropic material.
L Anisotropic means that its structure
and properties vary in different
R T directional axes: R (radial), T (tangential),
and L (longitudinal).

The shrinkage and swelling of wood

is different for the R, T, L:
• Max T : 6-13% 2 x
• Max R : 2-8% 100 x
• Max L : 0.1-0.2%

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Shrinkage & Swelling
Differences in transverse (T&R) shrinkage and swelling
rates can change cross-sectional shapes

Rectangle  Cup
Rectangle  Diamond
Rectangle  Rectangle
Round  Oval

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Shrinkage & Swelling
The shrinkage and swelling are calculated with the
following formulas:

wet dimension – dry dimension

Shrinkage (%) = x 100
wet dimension

wet dimension – dry dimension

Swelling (%) = x 100
dry dimension

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Density & Specific gravity
Density () is defined as mass per unit volume and
calculated by the following equation:
 = mass/volume

Density of wood is usually calculated as the weight density

instead of mass:
weight of wood with moisture
Wt density = volume of wood with moisture

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Density & Specific gravity
Specific Gravity (SG) is defined as the density of a
substance relative to the density of water. SG is sometimes
called relative density or basic density.
Substances with a SG of less than one will float.
The SG of wood is always calculated using its oven-dry
mass.
OD weight of wood
SG =
Weight of an equal volume of water

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Specific gravity & Density
Per definition, SG = Density-WOOD /Density-WATER
As water density is almost 1, then the density is sometimes
considered as SG.
SG or density of wood varies with MC because MC can affect both mass
and volume. Therefore, the MC during both mass and volume
measurements must be specified.

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Specific gravity & Density
Density Variability
Density of the substance that makes up a wood cell wall has
been found to be about 1.5 g/cm3.
However, an actual sample of wood also
contains void (cell lumens), so most woods
have a density less than 1 g/cm3.
Void volume directly relates to density.

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Specific gravity & Density
Wood density or SG varies by:
● Among species because different cell types and sizes
occur in differing proportions
● Within a species because of genetic factor, site and
geographic conditions.
● Within a tree because of height effect and distance from
pith
● Softwood: SG decreases with increasing height
● All: SG decreases from the pith to the bark
● Between early wood and late wood

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Specific gravity & Density
 Wood often contains organic and inorganic compounds
which is known as extractive materials such as resins,
oils, and polyphenols, silicates, carbonates, and
phosphates.
■ Often found in cell walls
■ Increases overall density
■ More found in heartwood, so its density tends to be higher
 The range of SG for a few commercial woods mostly fall
between 0.35 and 0.65. Woods from other parts of the
world exhibit a much greater range, with SGs reported as
low as 0.04 and as high as 1.40.

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References
● Haygreen, J.G. and J.L. Bowyer. 1985. Forest Products and Wood
Science: An Introduction. The IOWA State University Press/AMES.
(Chapter 8-9)
● Brown, T. ….. Basic Wood Properties
● Wimmer, R. …… Wood Quality: Causes, Methods, Control
● Annon. ….. Properties of Wood. Society of Wood Science and
Technology. Teaching Unit Number 2. http://www.swst.org

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Hygroscopic of wood

sw
ell
sh ing
rin
ka
ge
Adsorbs water vapor or liquid
Desorbs water vapor
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Wood 3 Perpendicular axis

Wood has 3 axes:

• R Radial
L • T Tangential
• L Longitudinal

As an anisotropic material,
R T the properties of a piece
wood (shrinkage, strength,
etc) are different on the 3
axes.

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 Water in Wood
Oven < FSP FSP > FSP
Dry Green

MC
0% 30% >80%

Dry (no water) Free water (vapor)

Free water (liquid) Bound water

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Density variation: Among species
SOFTWOOD HARDWOOD

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Density variation
Within species of different height distance from pith

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Density variation
Between Early-wood and Late-wood

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