An existing drying simulation model for softwood heartwood is revised lrom a theoretical point of view and is completed by extracting all the essential material parameters from moisture and temperature profiles measured in direct drying experiments. Some additional experimental results are presented to validate the qualitative characteristics of the model. The resulting computational model shows good agreement with experiments in the drying temperature range 45-120°C. Special attention is paid to the evolution of moisture gradient during drying, as the next step of the simulation project will be using the result as an input data for a computational stress model.