Density is defined as the ratio of a substance’s mass to its volume. The density of wood, like any other material that adsorbs water, changes when moisture content varies. This is because adsorbing moisture increases the total mass of wood, and may also change the volume as well.

Unlike specific gravity, for density we reference both mass and volume at the current moisture content. Meaning that water-mass is considered in density.

One easy way to calculate the density of wood at any moisture content is to use its basic specific gravity Gb and its percent volumetric shrinkage from green state to the desired moisture content SMC .

The presented calculator extracts percent volumetric shrinkage from our database. In the case that the value is not available in our database or custom basic specific gravity is used, the calculator uses the equation below for estimating percent volumetric shrinkage value from green state to oven-dry moisture content (S0).