The Swelling of Wood: An Analysis of the Swelling Resulting from Absorption of Various Liquids Available to Purchase

WOOD though in many ways an attractive structural material has the disadvantage of being water absorbent. In itself this characteristic would be of minor significance were it not for the fact that it is accompanied by considerable swelling at right angles to the axes of the wood fibres. Great interest is being shown at the present time in the possibility of reducing this swelling by the use of synthetic resins. In this article the possibility of preventing swelling by such means is discussed and it is concluded that complete immunity from swelling could only be attained at the expense of the strength of the wood. The article gives an original analysis which enables the magnitude of swelling to be predicted and the expression derived is shown to be in agreement with experiment.