Bending Creep of High-Temperature Dried Spruce Timber

Summary In this paper, bending creep test results from high-temperature (HT) dried Norway Spruce timber are presented. The results are compared with creep tests of conventional low-temperature (LT) dried timber. The HT drying was performed at 115°C and the LT drying was performed at 70°C. The creep tests were performed in a varying climate with 20°C and 30–90% relative humidity. A total number of 24 specimens, 45 × 70 × 1100 mm, were loaded in bending during approximately 240 days. Both the HT-dried and the LT-dried material were cut from the same four trees to have as equal raw material as possible for the two drying methods. The results show smaller bending creep deformations of HT-dried timber (approximately 30%) as compared to the LT-dried timber. The variation in magnitude of creep for HT-dried timber was equal to or smaller than for LT-dried timber. Additionally, the variation in deformation between the moisture cycles was smaller for HT-dried timber. These observations indicate a less pronounced mechano-sorptive effect for HT-dried timber. The free shrinkage in the grain direction was significantly smaller for the HT-dried material than for the LT-dried material.