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Special Issue on Wood Science and ConservationInternational audienceSpring mechanisms have been developed, since late 1970s, to provide some freedom of deformation to the wooden supports of paintings; however, no scientific method is up to now available for optimizing their design parameters. This article deals with theoretical and experimental work on the replica of an actual wooden support restored in a Florentine laboratory. A model is developed to describe its deformational behaviour after an auxiliary support has been applied by means of springs. The main outcome of such a research, still on-going, is a numerical model verified experimentally, enabling a restorer to choose the most appropriate mechanical parameters for springs in order to obtain the desired control of deformations and stresses produced by the expected environmental conditions

Heat treatment is a useful tool to improve some properties of wood and give new market to fast growing species. The effect of heat treatment in saturated steam was tested on poplar wood and its effect on some physical and mechanical properties determined. It was shown that the mass loss is well dependent on the treatment intensity and that the colour variation presents a linear trend with the mass loss. Surprisingly the volume after treatment resulted increased. Weak heat treatments up to 4% of mass loss have an increasing effect on MOE. After 4% of mass loss MOE tends to decrease getting lower of untreated samples once 5% of mass loss is reached. According to FTIR analysis the main effect of the heat treatment can be identified in the degradation of the hemicelluloses and in particular of the glucoxylans. A chemical degradation of the hemicelluloses can be observed by FTIR since very low mass losses.

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