EVALUATION OF MOISTURE CONTENT AND DENSITY OF WOOD PRODUCTS USING MICROWAVES

REAL-TIME MEASUREMENT OF MOISTURE IN WOOD PRODUCTS IS OF MAJOR IMPORTANCE IN THE MANUFACTURE OF VALUE-ADDEDED WOOD PRODUCTS SUCH AS PLYWOOD, PARTICLE/FIBER/FLAKEBOARD,ETC. IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT FOR DETERMINING THE VALUE OF RAW MATER IALS SUCH AS WOOD CHIPS AND FLAKES WHICH ARE USUALLY PUR- CHASED BY WEIGHT AND FOR ESTABLISHING PRE-AND POST-DRYING NEEDS. THIS RESEARCH WILL DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF US ING A TWO-PARAMETER (AMPLITUDE AND PHASE DELAY), SINGLE FRE-QUENCY, NON-CONTACTING MICROWAVE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM TO SI- MULTANEOUSLY DETERMINE THE MOISTURE CONTENT AND DENSITY OF IN-PROCESS WOOD PRODUCTS. ATTENTION WILL FOCUS ON ANALYTI- CAL AND EMPIRICAL TECHNIQUES FOR QUANTIFYING THE MOISTURE CONTENT AND DENSITY FROM THE MEASURED PROPERTIES (AMPLITUDE AND PHASE) OF MICROWAVES, FOLLOWING PROPAGATION THROUGH THE WOOD MATERIAL. THE TECHNOLOGY WILL BE DEMONSTRATED FOR A WIDE RANGE OF MATERIAL THICKNESSES (UP TO 6 INCHES), MOIS- TURE CONTENT (DRY TO SATURATION) & DENSITIES (.02 TO .8G/CC)