DECAY RESISTANCE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF OIL HEAT TREATED ASPEN WOOD

The decay resistance of oil-heat treated aspen wood (Populus tremula l.) against white rot fungi (Coriolus versicolor) and brown rot fungi (Coniophora puteana) was investigated. Three different temperature stages and two time levels for oil heat treatment for the selection of optimum conditions were determined. Linseed oil as a heating medium was used. The mass loss of treated samples that were exposed to both fungi was significantly lower than that of the control samples. Results also showed improvement in dimensional stability after oil heat treatment. Decay resistance and dimensional stability of aspen wood were increased significantly with temperature increasing, but time seemed to have no effect on those properties. Oil heat treatment is a suitable method to improve decay resistance of aspen wood as it reduced the mass loss by 71% and 77% against Coriolus versicolor and Coniophora puteana compared with control samples, respectively. On the other hand, oil heat treatment improved the dimensional stability by about 20.5%.