3D simulation of macroscopic heat and mass transfer properties from the microstructure of wood fibre networks

A method to simulate the macroscopic permeability and thermal conductivity from the microstructure of wood fibre networks is presented. The simulations were done on high resolution microtomography data with an effective pixel size of 2.28 mu m for material densities from 500 to 1360 kg m(-3), and the stationary flow equations were solved with periodic boundary conditions. In addition, we present experimental data for permeability and thermal conductivity. Considering that no free parameters in the simulations were used for fitting with the experimental results, the simulated and experimentally determined permeability and thermal conductivity were in good agreement. Such finding opens the possibility to not only simulate the heat and mass transfer properties of real but also virtual fibre networks with good confidence. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.