Case Study: U.S.D.A. Forest Products Laboratory achieves optimized wood heating and drying with ANSYS

Simulation Enables Better Heating and Drying Processes for Wood

USDA Forest Products Laboratory, the U.S. government's leading wood research institute, faced a challenge in accurately determining wood thermal conductivity because variability in ring density, porosity, cell orientation, tree age and moisture made conventional equations unreliable. These uncertainties force lumber mills into costly trial-and-error drying schedules that lengthen drying times, risk structural damage and increase scrap. To tackle this, the lab used ANSYS solutions—ANSYS Mechanical and ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL)—to build finite‑element models for thermal analysis.

Using ANSYS APDL for micro‑scale models of cell porosity and alignment and ANSYS Mechanical for macro‑scale board simulations, the team ran dozens of automated parametric simulations to map thermoconductivity across different geometries and growth conditions. ANSYS-enabled FEA demonstrated that porosity, growth rate, ring density and orientation significantly influence thermal conductivity (e.g., quarter‑sawn boards heat faster than flat‑sawn), producing equations and lookup tables to optimize drying schedules, heat‑treatment and curing times—reducing trial-and-error, lowering scrap and improving wood processing efficiency.

USDA Forest Products Laboratory

John Hunt

Research Mechanical Engineer