Moisture Changes Induced In Red Oak By Transverse Stress

The effect of tensile and compressive stresses on northern red oak, in the radial and tangential directions, was investigated at a number of initial moisture contents. Tensile stresses were found to increase moisture content, while compressive stresses decreased moisture content. The size of the stress-induced change in moisture content approaches 1% at high stress levels and high initial moisture contents and increases in an approximately exponential way with initial moisture content. A thermodynamic relationship used to calculate the change in moisture content under stress produced values in reasonably close agreement with observed changes