The porous microstructure of wood samples on their sections perpendicular to the fibres were analyzed using the scanning electron microscope images. The fractal dimensions of these images were calculated using the box-counting method, respectively. They are all approximately equal to 1.4, although the distribution and the scale of wood fibres are extremely different. Then, a fractal model for predicting the effective thermal conductivities of wood was established using the thermal resistance method. In addition, we measured the effective thermal conductivity of wood via an improved transient plane source measurement method. The calculated results by the proposed model are in good agreement with the experimental data as well as the literature data. The comparison shows clearly that this fractal model can be used to accurately and effectively predict the effective thermal conductivities perpendicular to the fibres of wood. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.