Time-of-Flight Adjustment Procedure for Acoustic Measurements in Structural Timber

• Main Authors: Daniel F. Llana, Guillermo Iñiguez-Gonzalez, Francisco Arriaga, Xiping Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: North Carolina State University 2016-02-01
• Series: BioResources
• Subjects: Sawn timber; Length effect; Time-of-flight; Ultrasonic wave; Vibration analysis; Wave velocity
• Online Access: http://ojs.cnr.ncsu.edu/index.php/BioRes/article/view/BioRes_11_2_3303_Llana_Time_Flight_Adjustment_Procedure_Acoustic_Measurement

The effect of timber length on time-of-flight acoustic longitudinal measurements was investigated on the structural timber of four Spanish species: radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), laricio pine (Pinus nigra Arn.), and maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.). Time-of-flight longitudinal measurements were conducted on 120 specimens of dimensions 90 × 140 mm using three commercially available acoustic instruments (Sylvatest Duo, USLab, and Microsecond Timer). Time-of-flight data were initially obtained from the full-length (4 m) specimens, and then from the specimens cut to 3, 2, and 1 meter in length by successively cutting off 0.5 m from each end. The acoustic longitudinal velocity of the timber specimens of different lengths was also measured using a resonance-based acoustic method. The apparent acoustic longitudinal velocity for all species increased linearly as the timber length decreased from 4 to 1 meter. Acoustic velocity determined from time-of-flight data was significantly higher than the acoustic velocity determined using the resonance method, indicating systematic measurement errors associated with the time-of-flight instruments. Empirical models were developed for the relationships between time-of-flight measurements on timber specimens and timber lengths in the range of 1 to 4 m. Finally, a procedure was proposed to correct the time-of-flight data.