Experimental validation of green wood peeling assisted by IR heating - some considerations of the analytical system design

The results of a 2D simulation model have been validated by experimental data to check the possibility of infrared (IR) heating of rotating green logs in the course of veneer production. The assumption that the experimental situation can be described by simplified analytical solutions has been confirmed. In the knowledge of the thermal and physical characteristics of green wood, two methods are now available to calculate rapidly the temperature within the wood log and the maximum surface temperature reached by a green log rotating under an IR heating source: (1) by numerical simulation and (2) by analytical equations, which are simpler than the computationally intensive finite element method. Experimental results, validated by both methods, show that an IR heating system as part of an industrial peeling machine would not warm-up green wood to the required peeling temperature at current peeling speeds.