WOOD RESEARCH Volume 70, Number 4, 2025
RENÁTA KUTLÁKOVÁ, PETER RANTUCH, JOZEF MARTINKA, MARGARÉTA TIBENSKÁ, TOMÁŠ ŠTEFKO, and IGOR WACHTER

CHARACTERIZATION OF IGNITION PROCESS OF THERMALLY TREATED WOOD BY CONE CALORIMETER

This study examines the influence of thermal treatment on the ignition properties of Norway spruce (Piceaabies (L.) H. Karst.) and sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) wood. Using a cone calorimeter both untreated and thermally modified samples (180°C for 6 h) were analysed to determine key fire modelling parameters: combustion efficiency, critical heat flux, ignition temperature, thermal inertia, and thermal response parameter. Obtained results reveal that thermally treated wood exhibits higher combustion efficiency than its untreated equivalent, with spruce generally outperforming oak. The effect of thermal treatment on other properties was species-dependent. Thermally treated spruce showed an increase in critical heat flux and a decrease in both thermal inertia and the thermal response parameter. Conversely, thermally treated oak displayed a reduction in critical heat flux and an increase in both thermal inertia and the thermal response parameter. These results highlight the complex, species-specific effects of thermal modification on the fire behaviour of wood.

WOOD RESEARCH Volume 64, Number 3, 2019
Cornelia Rieder-Gradinger, Martin Lindemann, Alexander Milovanovic, Christian Hansmann, and Astrid Forneck

Short note: Regulation of extractives content within oak wood used for barrique production by specific variation of raw material and process parameters

In order to guarantee a maximum quality standard of oak-barrel stored wine, (barrique), the optimization of defined phenolic and non-phenolic wood compounds (e. g. whiskey lactones), which are released into the wine during storage, is necessary to enable its unique barrique taste. Numerous factors play a crucial role for the formation of these substances within wood. Besides the origin of the wood material, also storage/drying time and defined further processing parameters are responsible for its extract composition. In the present work, oak from three different sources, which had been stored/dried for different periods, was subjected to a successively increased thermal treatment (steaming, toasting). It could be shown, that especially whiskey lactones, those wood substances, which have a decisive influence on the wine-flavor, can be controlled or increased by deliberate selection of the raw material as well as processing parameters in the course of barrel production.