Acoustic Inspection of Timber

The ability to determine wood quality using non-destructive tests has enormous potential for the forestry industry in both research and commercial applications. This thesis describes some of the theory of acoustic waves in wood and how wood stiffness can be estimated by measuring the velocity of acoustic waves. Attention is paid to both resonance and stress wave timer technologies and the benefits and problems with both. A detailed description is given of the design of a new tool (Treetap 5.0) to aid in future, acoustic based, timber inspection research