Effects of Periodic Temperature Changes on Stress Relaxation of Chemically Treated Wood

In order to clarify the relationship between the microstructural changes and the rheological behaviors of four chemically treated woods (delignified wood, hemicellulose-removed wood, DMSO swollen and decrystallization treated wood), the stress relaxation of wood with three different moisture contents was determined during periodic temperature changes. The experimental results show that after wood relaxation for 4 h at 25℃, the stress decays sharply when the temperature increases and 2 h later the stress recovers again when the temperature drops back to the original point. The additional stress relaxation, produced after temperature begins to increase, is mainly caused by the thermal swelling, molecular thermal movement and the break of a part of residual hydrogen bonds. The number of hydrogen bonds and the size and amount of cavities in various treated woods greatly affect the magnitude of the additional relaxed stress and the recovery stress.