The Predictive Accuracy of Modulus of Elasticity (MOE) in the Wood of Standing Trees and Logs

Abstract

The characterization of poplar wood assumes a strategic position to increase the competitiveness of the entire forest wood supply chain. From this aspect, the identification of wood quality represents a primary objective for researchers and private landowners. The quality of wood can be defined via traditional visual methods based on the experience of technicians or using traditional tools, such as incremental drills and sound hammers. The traditional properties of these traits, based only on visual characteristics, can outline a classification based on the macroscopic properties of wood with the aim of defining the volume of recoverable wood. However, this approach does not provide a good indicator of the physical or mechanical properties of wood. Mechanical tests of wood require the felling of trees with the correlated preparation of the specimens. A different solution to determine wood quality is based on the application of non-destructive technology (NDT). In this context, the aim of the present study was to determine the predictive accuracy of non-destructive analysis of the MOEd in standing trees and logs of a 22-year-old poplar clone and to examine the relationship with MOEs in sawn specimens. This relationship was also studied at three different stem heights. We non-destructively measured poplar trees and green logs using TreeSonic and Resonance Log Grader and compared the results with those obtained via a destructive method using a universal testing machine. The results showed that for clone I-214 poplar trees, the dynamic elastic moduli of standing trees and logs were validly correlated with the static elastic modulus. These results suggest that it is possible to evaluate the mechanical properties of poplar wood directly from standing trees using non-destructive techniques (NDT) and that this tool can be easily used to presort material in the forest.

Assessment of Bending Strength of Eucalyptus Pellita Wood by Acoustic Velocity (AV) Technique

“…In this study, we found a correlation between the acoustic velocity and static MOE on slabs for all six trees. A study reported by Papandrea et al (2022) also shows a correlation between the velocity and the MOE of logs of the poplar trees. Van & Schimleck (2022) reported that the Eucalyptus clone shows a positive correlation between the acoustic velocity and the MOE.…”

Do Sonic Tomography and Static Load Tests Yield Comparable Values of Load-Bearing Capacity?

“…In severely decayed trees, such as those in this study, this variability may be even greater, as damaged wood has been shown to be much tougher than normal wood [30]. Even under ideal conditions, the correlation between stress wave velocity and the modulus of rupture can be quite low [25,[31][32][33]. Wood is an anisotropic material with a different material response depending on the direction of the applied stress.…”

Influence of growth ring number and width on elastic constants of poplar

“…The influence of climate circumstances on the GRW for Populus ussuriensis Kom (Gou and Chen 2011), Canadian poplar (Populus x canadensis Moench) (Ziemiańska and Kalbarczyk 2018), and Populus hybrids in Latvia (Šēnhofa et al 2016), and length and temperature of the day on the ring properties of Populus alba L. (Baba et al 2022) were evaluated relative to the interaction with mechanical properties. Lang et al (2002Lang et al ( , 2003, Roohnia et al (2010), Casado et al (2010), Ettelaei et al (2019), Virgen-Cobos et al (2022, Papandrea et al (2022), Zhang and Lu (2014), Rescalvo et al (2020), Hajihassani et al (2018), Özkan et al (2020), Narasimhamurthy et al (2017), Aydın et al (2007), Monteior et al (2019, Sözbir et al (2019) dynamically and/or statically determined the EL of different poplar species as solid wood (unmodified or modified), standing trees, or engineered products prepared from Populus x canadensis. A few studies considered the shear modulus or full (twelve) elastic constants.…”