A NOVEL METHOD OF DENSITY DETERMINATION FOR WATERLOGGED WOODS: COMPARISON WITH A KNOWN CLASSICAL TECHNIQUE

Abstract

In the course of research for conservation treatments of the waterlogged woods archaeological artefacts, characterisation of degree of woods decay seemed to be a major step in choosing of feeler concentrations for structural consolidation. For purpose, the Maximum Water Content (MWC) and density were the common parameters used for determining degree of the waterlogged woods degradation. As for fresh wood, assessment to the real density of waterlogged woods (density (GCGR2R ) was fastidious. Then, the conditional R ) of wood was always determined on basis of Smith relation. The latter was subjected to an established hypothesis that stipulates a constant value for density of wood dry-matter of about 1.5. The actual paper proposes a novel method for determination of waterlogged wood conditional density. It’s fundamentally based on Archimede principle, as those kinds of woods were completely watering submersible. The obtained results have been compared with those from application of the modified Smith formula. A good correlation was reached between the two methods. It immediately followed that assumption of constant density of fresh wood dry-matter (value 1.5), drove to a good proximation in usage of Smith formula. However, this approximation did not still hold for slightly degraded woods as shown by compared results of these two methods. The main advantage of the proposed method linked with its practical measurements in real conditions and the fact that no assumption for the wood cell wall density was necessary