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Swedish hardwood is today used in the energy, pulp and mechanical hardwood industries. Only very small volumes of Swedish hardwood are, however, consumed by the mechanical industry that normally pays the highest timber price. The smallness of the volumes used for mechanical refinement is a result both of forestry not focusing on the production of hardwood for these uses, and of the fact that the mechanical hardwood industry, particularly the sawing industry, is not designed to process the existing raw material in an optimal manner. This thesis discusses the possibilities of improving the conditions for the mechanical refinement of hardwood. The aim of the work has been to investigate the possibilities of developing products and methods for processing of Swedish hardwood. The thesis proposes a new manufacturing system for Swedish hardwood to better utilize the inherent properties of the wood material. The system is based on the so-called PrimWood Method and the star-sawing concept. Compared to normally sawn wood, the sawing concept utilizes the raw material more efficiently with regard to volume yield, and increases the distance between knots in the sawn wood. The material produced has vertical annual rings which give the wood smaller movements as a result of moisture variations and a different textural appearance. Using the PrimWood Method for hardwood would make it possible to more closely match customer requirements regarding hardwood products. Since Swedish hardwood is nowadays mainly used indoors, a possible way of expanding the market would be to increase the outdoor use of the material. Here the durability is of great importance, and one important factor is then the capillary characteristics of the material. The thesis therefore focuses on the characterisation of the capillarity in wood for the future improvement of its durability. It is shown that with the material produced by the proposed manufacturing system, i.e. wood with vertical annual rings, the possibility of using hardwood outdoors increases, because the susceptibility to cracking decreases.

La thèse s'inscrit dans un projet de recherche national (ANR Primaterre) qui a pour but d'étudier les performances (mécaniques et thermiques) réelles des matériaux de construction premiers à faible énergie grise que sont la terre crue et la limousinerie.Le travail de thèse se concentre sur les aspects thermiques et hygrothermiques de la terre crue, c'est-à-dire le couplage entre les transferts de masse d'eau (liquide et vapeur) et de chaleur au sein du matériau. Dans une première partie, une analyse des performances thermiques et hydriques d'une habitation comportant des murs en pisé (terre crue compactée) instrumentés a été réalisée. Cette étude a été complétée par la mesure, en laboratoire, des propriétés thermiques et hydriques du matériau. Le lien entre les paramètres matériaux mesurés et les performances (hygro)-thermiques a été appréhendé à la lumière d'un modèle numérique couplé, adapté aux caractéristiques particulières du matériau. Cette étude a mis en évidence que, de par leur aptitude à stocker puis restituer l'énergie solaire, leur capacité de stockage hydrique et la complexité des transports et changements de phases de l'eau se produisant en leur sein, les murs en terre crue présentent de nombreuses particularités qu'il convient de prendre en compte pour une bonne prédiction de leur impact sur les performances d'une habitation. / The Ph.D. is part of a national research project (ANR Primaterre) aiming at promoting real performances (mechanical and thermal) of primary construction materials with low embodied energy such as raw earth.This work focuses on the thermal and hygrothermal behaviour of rammed earth, i.e. coupled transfers of heat and moisture (liquid water and water vapour) within the material. On the one hand, an evaluation of the thermal and hygric performances of a monitored house with rammed earth walls is provided. This study is completed with laboratory measurements of the thermal and hydric properties of the material. A numerical coupled model, suitable for the specific characteristics of the material, provides a better understanding of the link between the characterization parameters measured and its (hygro)thermal performances. Because of their ability to store and release heat from the sun, their capacity to store moisture and the complexity of the transfers occurring in their pores, earthen walls display many distinctive features that are essential to count for in order to provide an accurate prediction of their impact on the global performances of a building.

This thesis explored the impacts of forest harvesting on gaseous elemental mercury emissions from forest soils in both field and laboratory studies, through novel use of enriched mercury isotope tracers. Forest floor Hg emissions, sourced from legacy deposition, increased proportionally to the vegetation quantity removed, with biomass harvesting most exacerbating emissions. Contemporary Hg deposition did not appear to be influenced by harvesting. Some of the tracer was rapidly lost to the atmosphere (~8%), but most was sequestered within the soil. Two regimes facilitating Hg emissions were observed in low-light conditions. Under extremely dry conditions deeper Hg sources (> 2cm depth) were as equally susceptible to emission as shallower sources. Following wetting to field capacity, emissions were elevated only from shallow sources, likely as a result of upward capillary transport. Impacts of vegetation removal and dry fluxes are previously uncharacterized and may constitute large additional sources to regional atmospheric Hg cycling.

This thesis explored the impacts of forest harvesting on gaseous elemental mercury emissions from forest soils in both field and laboratory studies, through novel use of enriched mercury isotope tracers. Forest floor Hg emissions, sourced from legacy deposition, increased proportionally to the vegetation quantity removed, with biomass harvesting most exacerbating emissions. Contemporary Hg deposition did not appear to be influenced by harvesting. Some of the tracer was rapidly lost to the atmosphere (~8%), but most was sequestered within the soil. Two regimes facilitating Hg emissions were observed in low-light conditions. Under extremely dry conditions deeper Hg sources (> 2cm depth) were as equally susceptible to emission as shallower sources. Following wetting to field capacity, emissions were elevated only from shallow sources, likely as a result of upward capillary transport. Impacts of vegetation removal and dry fluxes are previously uncharacterized and may constitute large additional sources to regional atmospheric Hg cycling.