EFFECT OF DOUGLAS GENETICS ON ITS HYGROSCOPIC BEHAVIOR: OPTIMIZATION OF SAMPLES DIMENSIONS FOR EXPERIMENTAL TESTS.

This study present an original approach of wood durability by proposing a coupling between different genetic families of Douglas and the structures durability using as 'marker', the hygroscopic behavior of materials. This approach appears as a statistical study which has the ambition to highlight some markers linked with a low diffusion coefficient and of low equilibrium moisture. This paper present a preliminary study that concerns the development of a numerical tool for performing a finite elements modeling of moisture transfers in the wood material. The purpose of modeling is to simulate the experimental tests that characterize the diffusion processes in controlled humidity and temperature. The hygroexpansion behavior will also be studied. The aim of this paper is to optimize dimensions of samples with time necessary to obtain the equilibuim hygroscopic for each climatic condition defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]