Abstract
Many tropical species are underutilized because of their varied and frequently unknown drying properties. When handling a large number of species, harvesting and processing the species individually is impractical, and grouping species by similar drying properties is difficult. This report examines the relationship between green moisture content and specific gravity of tropical species, using data gathered from the world literature. The report shows how these data, converted to green weight density, can be used to estimate drying times and thus to group tropical species by similar estimated drying times.
Keywords
kiln drying,
tropical hardwoods,
specific gravity,
density
Citation
Simpson, William T.; Sagoe, John A. 1991. Relative drying times of 650 tropical woods : estimation by green moisture content, specific gravity, and green weight density. Gen. Tech. Rep. FPL-GTR-71. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. 27 p.
