jimosufan
Member
I'm sure somebody from the Government has already done this experiment. Or gave a 2.5 mill grant to some University.
Vertical vs Horizontal Wood Stacking
- Thread starter leeave96
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Google the experiment on building a solar kiln.... I guess there is a reason I prefer to let the wind and sun do their jobs... Nothing fancy, just a wood pile.
"My thinking is the root mass feeds the leaf mass water via a bunch of small tubes. There are no pumps. Capillary action? How does this work? Would it work in reverse? If it did work vertically, would it be much faster than horizontally?"
In the intact tree the small tubes (xylem) connect the roots to the leaves.
Water evaporates from the leaves, creating tension (negative pressure) on the column of water in the xylem.
This pulls the water up the xylem.
If the soil is wet there is also a certain degree of root pressure pushing the water up; that causes the little drops at the end of leaves on wet mornings (mainly in small soft plants).
The limit on the height of the tree is cavitation of the water - if the tension on the water column gets too high, bubbles come out of solution.
There are instruments to listen to this popping sound, to help track water flow through trees.
Redwood and Australian BlueGum trees are right around the physical limit for tree height to get water delivery up to the leaves.
Gravity would be a negligible influence on drying cut wood, unless it was still dripping wet. The interactions between the water and wood fibres are much stronger than the gravity pull on the water.
In the intact tree the small tubes (xylem) connect the roots to the leaves.
Water evaporates from the leaves, creating tension (negative pressure) on the column of water in the xylem.
This pulls the water up the xylem.
If the soil is wet there is also a certain degree of root pressure pushing the water up; that causes the little drops at the end of leaves on wet mornings (mainly in small soft plants).
The limit on the height of the tree is cavitation of the water - if the tension on the water column gets too high, bubbles come out of solution.
There are instruments to listen to this popping sound, to help track water flow through trees.
Redwood and Australian BlueGum trees are right around the physical limit for tree height to get water delivery up to the leaves.
Gravity would be a negligible influence on drying cut wood, unless it was still dripping wet. The interactions between the water and wood fibres are much stronger than the gravity pull on the water.
Dune
Minister of Fire
I have done this experiment many times with pine, since I store it in piles cut to stove length for a year before I split it. The rounds which are horizontal are always drier than the vertical ones.
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