Retraction notice to “On the estimation of moisture permeability and advection coefficients of a wood fibre material using the optimal experiment design approach” (Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science (2018) 90 (246–259), (S0894177717302224), (10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2017.07.026))

This article has been retracted at the request of the Editors-in-Chief. The Editors-in-Chief were alerted by a reader to a methodological issue affecting the main approach followed in the paper. The authors considered a vessel with an open top but closed at the bottom and the sides by solid walls. The authors introduced a nonzero velocity of a condensing component of a gas mixture, that has the same value everywhere and is directed towards the bottom of the vessel. This clearly violates the impermeability of the solid wall at the bottom of the vessel. The error is essential as the entire manuscript is set up as a proof of existence of this convection term. However, the fitting of the value of a velocity in a model to experimental data is not a proof of existence. A proper proof would require direct experimental measurements and/or evaluation based on the fundamental conservation laws. (a) Experimental validation would require direct velocity field or pressure gradient determination, either of which experimental data would prove that a nonzero net convection term introduced by the authors is correct. No such data are provided in the paper in question.(b) A derivation based on first principles is also not given in the paper. Although the authors attempted to give such a derivation in their answers to the Editors-in-Chief's comments, there is a serious error in each of their answers. For example, they state that Eq. (8) cannot hold at the bottom of the vessel, while both sides of Eq. (8) are simply equal to zero at this place (Eq. (8) is obtained by taking the derivative with respect to x of the Dalton equation which says that the sum of all partial pressures is the total pressure).The physical arguments why the total pressure in the vessel should be homogeneous in quasi-steady state are solid and the Editors-in-Chief have been provided with neither direct experimental measurements nor correct analytical proof to the contrary. After careful consideration, the Editors-in-Chief have decided that this article should be retracted.