Thermal conductivity assessment of wood using micro computed tomography based finite element analysis (μCT-based FEA)

The paper presents a progressive methodology that combines X-ray micro computed tomography (& mu;CT) and finite element analysis (FEA) to test the thermal conductivity of wood at the mesoscale level. & mu;CT enables the threedimensional (3D) modeling of real wood material with two-phase components (i.e., earlywood and latewood). The analytical wood conductivities from & mu;CT-based FEA agree well with those from the theoretical analysis and the existing experimental findings. Using & mu;CT-based FEA also enables the numerical evaluation of the effects of grain orientation, porosity, and water saturation degree on thermal conductivity of wood. Compared to current testing methods, the proposed & mu;CT-based FEA has the advantages of high-resolution modeling, rapid evaluation, and high reproducibility of wood thermal conduction.