Modélisation du procédé THM appliqué à du bois de peuplier

Details

Supervisors

Pardoen, Thomas ; Delannay, Laurent

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil mécanicien, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

enWood is a resource that has been used by humans since ancient times. Highly abundant, it is present in many everyday applications (construction, heating, tools, etc.). For years, humans have aimed for higher performance by using increasingly scarce materials and creating ever more complex objects. However, at a time when the future of our planet is a major concern, the use of these non-renewable materials and this complexity raises questions. Wood seems to have a role to play in the upcoming changes. In the energy sector, biomass is used to create synthetic fuels that can replace current non-renewable fuels. In the industrial sector, the transformation of wood into a more durable and robust material is being studied. One particular process, the Thermo-Hygro-Mechanical (THM) process, enables the transformation of wood to achieve the desired performance while remaining an ecological process and keeping the wood chemically unchanged. This THM process relies on the use of three factors to alter the wood's properties: temperature (T), humidity (H), and the application of force (M). This work focuses on the THM process and characterizes the behavior of wood during this process. To achieve this, a series of experiments is conducted with the aim of defining the parameters and models capable of accurately describing wood behavior. Ultimately, various numerical simulation tools are explored and analyzed. The work concentrates on the pre-treatment phases (drying, humidification) as well as the compression and relaxation phases. Finally, two models capable of accurately describing wood behavior have been created. The first model describes the evolution of temperature and humidity over time. The second model describes the effect of stress on wood using Abaqus' Hyperfoam model coupled with a viscoelastic model. This model also takes into account the diffusion of temperature during stress compression and relaxation.