Maximum effective vessel diameters of hardwoods

Summary Measurements of the gas pressure required to displace water and allow gas bubbles to start continuously passing through the void structure of hardwood cross sections varying in thickness from 0.1 ... 10.0 cm have been used to calculate the maximum effective opening diameters. These diameters decrease with an increase in the thickness of the cross sections, as is the case for softwoods. Extrapolation of diameter—thickness plots to zero thickness gives the maximum vessel diameters, which agree well with microscopically determined values. The relatively small decrease in the maximum effective opening diameters with increasing thickness of the cross sections for most of the sapwood samples tested is due to irregularities in the vessel diameters and presence of perforation plates at the ends of the vessel segments. The decrease in the maximum effective opening diameter with an increase in the thickness of the cross sections is greater for the heartwood than for the sapwood. The ratio of the sapwood to the heartwood values tends to become constant between cross section thicknesses of 2.5 and 5.0 cm. This ratio was small for tyloses free northern red oak but appreciable for the hardwoods containing tyloses in the heartwood. Air drying followed by oven drying and resaturating of the specimens with water caused only small variable changes in the maximum effective opening diameters that were within the range of experimental accuracy of the measurements (approximately 5%).Paper No. 3616 of the Journal Series of North Carolina State University Agricultural Experiment Station, Raleigh, N. C.