Effect of Location, Clone, and Measurement Season on the Propagation Velocity of Poplar Trees Using the Akaike Information Criterion for Arrival Time Determination

The purchase price of any forest plantation depends on the quality of its raw wood, and specifically, variables such as density, orientation of the fibers, bending strength, and bending MoE (Modulus of Elasticity). The elastic waves propagation velocity has become one of the most popular parameters to evaluate the wood in standing trees. This study had two objectives: (1) Show how this velocity is clearly affected by the clone, the location of the crop, and the measurement season of poplar crops; and (2) apply the Akaike information criterion to determinate the arrival time of the waves, on the basis of the entropy of the signals recorded by the piezoelectric sensors placed on the trunk of the tree.This work has been possible due to the financial support of the COMPOP_Timber project “Desarrollo de productos de ingeniería elaborados a base de tablones y chapas de chopo con inserciones de material compuesto para su uso en construcción”, BIA2017-82650-R. The authors thank to Antonio Aguilar and Chihab Abarkane, for his help during measurements in field, and Esther Merlo from MADERAS PLUS, for the analysis of results and methods