Thermal Modification Science Fair Project Wins First Place
Felicia Brooks tests 3 criteria in science fair project that addresses issues in thermal modification technology to understand if British Columbia pine beetle wood can be used as a more sensible and environmental choice for wood products requiring durability.
Felicia won best overall in her category of earth and environmental sciences. She was also awarded best overall project of the entire exhibition for grades 4 – 6 and won the Integris Credit Union award for community enhancement of $250.
Brooks’ science fair project tackles issues with wood, mainly durability and stain performance. Her project describes how mountain pine beetle wood, through thermal modification, compares to natural pine beetle wood, cedar wood, and pressure-treated wood. Ultimately she analyzes which is more environmentally-friendly and sustainable.
Her project comprised of three tests: a stain performance test, 24-hour soak test, and a timed water absorption test. In each of these tests she prepared equally sized boards by planing them to same thickness and sawing them to same width. All boards had equal dimensions and Brooks recorded her analysis and results.
In each of these tests Brooks prepared equally sized boards by planing them to same thickness and sawing them to same width.
The stain performance test involved picking each of the boards and staining them with the same amount of stain. A stopwatch was used to measure the time it took the stain on each of the boards to dry and soak in. After the stain was dry, each board was studied to see if an extra coat was needed. Thermally modified wood won the best overall mark on this test as it did not require an additional coat.
The 24-hour soak test measured performance on water absorption. This test was chosen to measure water absorption because that often has a negative impact on wood durability. As Brooks said: “In this test you do not want it to absorb much water because if it absorbs a lot it will warp, cup, swell, and rot.” The test involved measuring dimensions of each of the wooden boards, weighing them on a scale, and dipping them into a bucket with water for a period of 24 hours. After that, the wood was removed to see how much water it had absorbed. “Thermally Modified wood was the best in this test because it did not absorb a lot of water” said Brooks.
The timed water absorption test involved using a syringe to drop water onto boards and time it using a stopwatch to determine how long the boards took to soak up the water. “In this test you do not want it to soak in quickly because if the wood is on a deck you don’t want the water to soak in fast when it rains because then it will warp, cup, swell and rot quicker which means you will have to change your deck more often. Thermally Modified was the best in this test because the water took the longest to soak in the wood.”
Brooks won best overall project in the grades 4
- 6 for the entire exhibition. There were about 68 projects in her age group.
In the end Brooks says this is good news for our community. “We have a lot of mountain pine beetle killed pine in our area we can Thermally Modify pine which makes it look similar to cedar and is not as expensive as cedar. Thermally Modified Wood is also more environmentally as there are no chemicals added and sustainable in our area because we have an abundance of natural pine. Thermally modified wood out performed all the other wood types in all my tests. You should use Thermally Modified Wood to build your next project.”
