ORIGINAL CFD modeling and experimental validation of heat and mass transfer in wood poles subjected to high temperatures: a conjugate approach R. Younsi Æ D. Kocaefe Æ S. Poncsak Æ Y. Kocaefe Æ L. Gastonguay Received: 13 September 2007 / Accepted: 26 February 2008 / Published online: 19 March 2008 Ó Springer-Verlag 2008 Abstract In this article, a coupling method is presented in the case of high thermal treatment of a wood pole and a three-dimensional numerical simulation is proposed. The conservation equations for the wood sample are obtained using diffusion equation with variables diffusion coeffi- cients and the incompressible Reynolds averaged Navier– Stokes equations have been solved for the flow field. The connection between the two problems is achieved by expressing the continuity of the state variables and their respective fluxes through the interface. Turbulence closure is obtained by the use of the standard k–e model with the usual wall function treatment. The model equations are solved numerically by the commercial package ANSYS- CFX10. The wood pole was subjected to high temperature treatment under different operating conditions. The model validation is carried out via a comparison between the predicted values with those obtained experimentally. The comparison of the numerical and experimental results shows good agreement, implying that the proposed numerical algorithm can be used as a useful tool in designing high-temperature wood treatment processes. A parametric study was also carried out to determine the effects of several parameters such as initial moisture con- tent, wood aspect ratio and final gas temperature on temperature and moisture content distributions within the samples during heat treatment. Keywords Conjugate problem  Heat transfer and moisture  High-temperature wood treatment  CFD  Validation List of symbols C concentration, kg m -3 c p heat capacity, J kg -1 K -1 C l , C e1 , C e2 constants of the turbulence model D diffusion coefficient of water vapor in the fluid, m 2 s -1 D s diffusion in the wood sample, m 2 s -1 C l specific gravity H height of the wood sample, m I turbulence intensity k turbulent kinetic energy, m 2 s -2 k q thermal conductivity, W m -1 K -1 L length wood sample, m M moisture content, kg H 2 O (kg solid) -1 n normal to the surface P partial water vapor pressure in wood, Pa P k shear production of turbulent kinetic energy, m 2 s -3 P sv saturation water vapor pressure, Pa Re Reynolds number based on the length of the wood pole, q f U f L/lf t time, s T temperature, K (x, y, z) spatial coordinates, m R. Younsi (&)  D. Kocaefe  S. Poncsak  Y. Kocaefe Applied Sciences, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, 555 Boul.de l’universite ´, Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Canada G7H 2B1 e-mail: ryounsi@uqac.ca D. Kocaefe e-mail: dkocaefe@uqac.ca L. Gastonguay Research Institute of Hydro-Quebec, 1800, boul. Lionel-Boulet Varennes, Quebec, Canada J3X 1S1 e-mail: Gastonguay.louis@ireq.ca 123 Heat Mass Transfer (2008) 44:1497–1509 DOI 10.1007/s00231-008-0382-8