Influence of drying applications on wood, brick and concrete used as building materials: a review

Concrete, brick and wood are commonly used materials for building and other infrastructures. Drying is an important process involved in the production and the application of these materials. However, the application of this process leads to changes in the thermophysical properties of the materials. Therefore, this review highlights the effects of drying and the major drying defects found in wood, concrete and bricks. The major factors that influence the drying of wood, brick and concrete and the evolution of the moisture content during the application of the process were also highlighted. Understanding the drying endpoint of wood, brick and concrete as embodied in their drying kinetics will help in the choice of drying methods and drying conditions. The review showed that drying kinetics of wood and bricks are influenced by capillary pressure, mass diffusion coefficient, sorption isotherms, density, temperature, relative humidity of the drying air, vapour concentration, drying air velocity and the permeability of the materials. Models have been developed to predict the drying process of materials and most of the models are structural based and validation was done mechanistically. Visual-based models were lacking and should be developed to validate data from recent imaging techniques adopted in defects measurements in materials.