THEORETICAL EQUILIBRIUM MOISTURE CONTENT OF

WOOD UNDER VACUUM

Zhangjing Chen?
Research Associate

Fred M. Lamb1
Professor
Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 2406 1
(Received January 2002)

ABSTRACT

Under vacuum drying, there is an equilibrium moisture content corresponding to the vacuum drying
conditions, that is, temperature and pressure. Theoretical methods to calculate equilibrium moisture
content were developed based on the Hailwood-Horobin sorption theory. The equilibrium moisture
contents at pressures from 5 to 760 mm Hg and temperatures from 0 to 100°C were calculated and
tabulated in this paper. These equilibrium moisture contents can serve as an aid in the vacuum drying
control.
Kc,yuor~i.s: Equilibriuni moisture content, vacuum drying

sidered. Under atmospheric conditions, the to-

In the atmospheric environment, wood loses tal pressure is the sum of the air partial pres-
or gains moisture until it reaches equilibrium sure and vapor partial pressure. Under vacuum
with conditions of the air. During conventional conditions, total pressure is the same as vapor
drying, equilibrium moisture content (EMC) is partial pressure.
related to the temperature and the relative hu- Vacuum drying still requires control of
midity (or wet bulb depression) of the air (For- EMC conditions, i.e., temperature and pres-
est Products Laboratory 1990). However, dur- sure. Thus, it is essential to know the relation-
ing vacuum drying, there is little air. In this ship between temperature, pressure, and EMC.
case, EMC depends primarily on the total The objective of this paper is to develop a
pressure and temperature conditions. method to calculate EMCs under vacuum.
Wood contains the solid phase of wood sub- These theoretical EMCs under various tem-
stance, the liquid phase of free water, and the peratures and pressures were tabulated.
- -

gaseous phase consisting of air and water va-

por. During vacuum drying, the liquid water THEORETICAL EMCS UNDER V A C U U M DRYING
in the wood evaporates into water vapor. The When wood is exposed to the air, EMC de-
water vapor and air are removed from the pends on the relative humidity and the tem-
wood. The percentage of air volume becomes perature of the air. These relationships of EMC
less and less as drying continues. Since the have been well established (Forest Products
volume of water vapor from evaporation is Laboratory 1990). The original data are based
much greater than the volume of air inside the on Sitka spruce drying from the initial green
wood (Chen 1997), the volume of air is ne- condition at atmospheric temperature and hu-
glected and the pressure of the air is not con- midity.
The Hailwood-Horrobin sorption theory has
t Member of SWST. been applied to wood for many years (Hail-
 'JI
T ~ B la.
L ~ Thror-ctic,trl rrlrtilibri~rrnr~roistlrrac . o r ~ t ~tri
n t ~'trriorrs~rrrrlirrtrrrrrr.ct~nclprr.s.\rir.~,.s. 'a
P
Chert c~ndLamh-EMC UNDER VACUUM 555

wood and Horrobin 1946). This sorption theory

considers wood as a polymer. Simpson (1971,
1973) derived the coefficients of the Hailwood-
Horrobin model to calculate the EMC for Sitka
spruce. He found that the maximum deviation
from traditional tabulated data is only 0.9%
with the average deviation of 0.13%. Although
based on Sitka spruce, results are applicable to
other species (Simpson 1973).
The Hailwood-Horrobin formula to calcu-
late EMC is (Simpson 1973, Forest Products
Laboratory 1990):
KK,h + 2K2KlK,h2
EMC =
I+ +
K2K,K2h2 K1Kh I - Klz

where

where, EMC is equilibrium moisture content,

(%); T is temperature ("C); and h is the relative
humidity, (%I100).
This model representing sorption isotherm
is relatively simple and is in excellent agree-
ment with the experimental results in a broad
range of relative humidity (Simpson 1973).
Simpson used these equations to calculate the
EMC of wood in outdoor locations with the
United States and also worldwide (Simpson
1998). Sorption isotherms are experimentally
determined in the humid air at normal pres-
sure. Voigt et al. (1940) demonstrated the va-
lidity of sorption isotherms for vacuum con-
dition. Thus, the Hailwood-Horrobin model
that is used for normal atmospheric pressure
can also be applied to vacuum condition.
In atmospheric pressure, the relative humid-
WOOD AND FIBER SCIENCE, OCTOBER 2002, V 34(4)
Chrrl c~ndLamb-EMC UNDER VACUUM 557

ity is defined as the ratio of the partial vapor

pressure in the air to the saturated vapor pres-
sure for a given temperature. In vacuum, since
there is little or no air, the partial air pressure
is practically negligible. Thus, the absolute
pressure in the vacuum can be assumed to be
the same as water vapor pressure. In such a
vacuum drying system, there are, therefore,
two parameters: the absolute pressure and the
medium temperature. Complete vacuum is 0
mm Hg of the absolute pressure. The relative
humidity (h) in a vacuum system is defined as
the ratio of absolute pressure (p) in the system
to the saturated vapor pressure (p,,) at a given
temperature (T). Thus, the relative humidity in
a vacuum can be expressed as:

where h is relative humidity (%), p is absolute

pressure (mm HG), p,, is the saturated vapor
pressure at the given temperature (mm Hg).
The relation between the saturation pressure
and temperature from 0 to IOWC is expressed
as (Siau 1984):

where P,, is saturation pressure, mm Hg. R is

gas constant, 1.987 callmol K, and T is the
temperature in Kelvin.
Thus, by combining equations Eqs. (I), (6,)
and (7,) it is possible to estimate EMC for
wood under vacuum conditions.
Tables la, Ib, l c illustrate the calculated
EMC values under vacuum conditions. The
values calculated using Eq. (I.) Figure 1 is the
graphical representation of the same EMC val-
ues at the various pressures. During vacuum
drying, EMC increases with increasing the
pressure (less vacuum) and with decreasing
temperature.
Some considerations should be noted about
the EMC data from this model. The data in
Table 1 are derived from isotherm sorption
theory and are based on experimental data de-
termined at atmospheric pressure. They are not
WOOD AN11 FIBER SCIENCE, OCTOBER 2002, V . 34(4)
C'hen c~ndLnmh-EMC UNDER VACUUM 559

Temperature (C)

FIG. 1. Theoretical EMC under vacuum at the various

temperatures and pressures.

experimental data developed under vacuum

conditions. EMCs may differ for various spe-
cies in a practical situation. There is no infor-
mation available on the presence or absence
of a hysteresis effect under vacuum. A poten-
tial hysteresis may generate different EMC
values under vacuum. Furthermore the pres-
sure used in the calculation of EMC was taken
as vapor pressure where the air was assumed
to be absent. Because many factors can affect
EMC under vacuum, these data are only ap-
proximations. However, they can serve as use-
ful practical estimates.

REFERENCES
CHEN,Z. 1997. Primary driving force in wood vacuum dry-
ing. Ph.D. dissertation, Virginia Tech.., Blacksburg, VA.
http:Nscholar.lib.vt.edu/theseslavailable/ed-0198-1 855381
FORESTPRODUCTS LABORATORY. 1990. Wood engineering
handbook. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 438 pp.
HAILWOOD, A. J., AND S. HORROBIN. 1946. Absorption of
water by polymers: Analysis in terms of a simple mod-
el. Trans. Faraday Soc. 42B:84-92, 94-102.
SIAU,J. E 1984. Transport process in wood. Springer-Ver-
lag, New York, NY. 218 pp.
SIMPSON. W. T. 1971. Equilibrium moisture content pre-
diction for wood. Forest Prod. J. 21(5):48-49.
. 1973. Predicting equilibrium moisture content of
wood by mathematical models. Wood Fiber Sci. 5(1):
41-49.
. 1998. Equilibrium moisture content of wood in
outdoor locations in the United States and worldwide.
Research Note FPL-RN-0628, USDA Forest Products
Laboratory, Madison, WI. I l pp.
Voror, H., 0. U . KRISCHER, AND H. SCHAIISS. 1940. Spe-
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1 1(9):364-375.