EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENT OF THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF COMMONLY USED WOOD SPECIES IN ALBANIA

The uses of wood and wood based materials in everyday life ranging from domestic to industrial applications had called for renewed updating of the information on various thermal properties of the materials at different stages [Samuel, 2012]. The thermal conductivity of 10 wood species commonly used in wood industry in Albania were calculated analytically, numerically and experimentally by using Phywe apparatus and the results were compared. The experimental thermal conductivity measurements were conducted using the hot box method based on steady-state heat transfer. Within an interval of time, the thermal agitation in the samples increases as the temperature increases, after which thermal stability was attained. The thermal agitation is seen to be more prominent during the rising temperature than at the falling temperature. All samples attained stability after about 100 minutes of continuous agitation during the rising temperature and much faster at the falling temperature. The results allow to conclude that the higher density of wood, material exhibit a higher thermal conductivity by a linear equation for the temperature interval from 20°C to 70 °C . In addition, the values (0.068 to 0.115 W m-1K-1) obtained for the samples fall within the general standard range of conductivity (0,038 to 0,1 W m-1K-1) for wood materials [Hrčka et al, 2011, 2012], [Kiran et al., 2012] within approximately 8% accuracy of the test method.