I have a deck that’s part covered by a tarp and part covered by wood. No heating sources are nearby. After rainfall, the water standing on wood evaporates significantly faster than the water standing on the tarp.
What is the mechanism that’s causing this?
In: 6
Wood is porous. Are you sure it’s not just absorbing and/or seeping through?
1. Unless the wood has been treated to be waterproof (instead of merely rot resistant) then a significant amount of the water will be absorbed by the wood instead of evaporating. Wood can look dry and feel dry to the touch but still contain significant amounts of water.
1. In absorbing the water the wood also wicks the water away, making the water evaporate from all exposed surfaces of the wood as the wood dries instead of collecting into puddles with limited surface area as it likely does on the tarp.
2. One possibility is the wood has better heat conductivity but this is unlikely, wood generally has similar heat conductivity to most plastics
1. A layer of air trapped under the tarp may act as an insulating layer, reducing heat conduction from the ground.
The wood is porous and will absorbe some of it but it allso gives the water a bigger surface to evaporate from.
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