Effects of thermal treatment on air-dried density, color change, average surface roughness, and sound absorption capacity of Scots pine

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate some characteristics of thermally treated Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) wood specimens such as air-dried density, color change, average surface roughness, and sound absorption capacity. Heat treatment of Scots pine wood was performed at atmospheric pressure at 140, 160, 180, and 200 °C for 2 h. As a result, the air-dried density values of the thermally treated wood decreased as the temperature of the thermal treatment increased. With the increase of thermal treatment temperature, an increase in total color change values was detected on the surfaces of the samples and the color of the samples became darker. The average surface roughness (Ra) value of samples improved due to thermal treatment conditions and the highest value was determined in thermally treated samples at 200 °C as 3.59 μm. At 140 °C the value of maximum sound absorption coefficient was observed to be 0.48 at 2500 Hz and the highest sound transmission loss value, which was 36.7 dB, was measured at 6300 Hz and at 200 °C.