Abstract
There are significant environmental benefits of understanding the water characteristics in engineered wood products related to their fungi/mold susceptibility. The primary goal of this investigation was to gain a fundamental understanding of the water characteristics in oriented strandboard (OSB) using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) approaches. Isotherm sorption tests were conducted on commercial OSB specimens made from different wood species and adhesive combinations. Moisture content (MC) determination, water activity (aw) measurement, and magnetic resonance relaxometry plus chemometrics analysis were performed on the OSB specimens during isotherm sorption tests. The results showed that neither MC nor aw is a reliable indicator of mold susceptibility of OSB. NMR relaxometry together with distributed exponential analysis detected that the state of water with the longest spin-spin relaxation time is responsible for the mold susceptibility of OSB. OSB made from southern pine had higher mold susceptibility than that made from aspen because the pine OSB had a third water component with very long spin-spin relaxation time (6035-7346 μs). The results suggest that a new protocol for quality control based on NMR relaxometry could be put in place in OSB production.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1159-1165 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Transactions of the ASABE |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| State | Published - 2006 |
Keywords
- Distributed exponential analysis
- Magnetic resonance
- Oriented strandboard
- Relaxometry
- Water activity