How Well Can Sound Tomograms Characterize Inner-Trunk Defects in Beech Trees from a Burned Plot?

Abstract

In recent years, forest fires have become increasingly common, but also more damaging phenomena. These aspects are reflected in significant economic losses that affect the quality and quantity of wood volumes that can be used for industrial processing. For this reason, knowing the quality of the wood is important, especially in fire-affected trees. Because visual analyses cannot always reflect the quality of the wood inside the trunk, the present research aimed to evaluate the extent to which modern techniques based on the transfer of sounds can identify internal wood defects. In this sense, 42 tomograms made from beech trees affected by a litter fire were compared with the relative resistances of the wood to drilling and with the real condition of the wood inside the trunk, as made visible through the growth cores taken with a Pressler drill. From the cumulative interpretation of the results, it was found that the trees affected by the fire have serious defects, which lead to the downgrading of the wood and are not reproduced by the tomograph to their true extent. Conversely, sound transfer speeds through wood are influenced by the presence of beech red heartwood, which leads to an increase in sound transfer speeds through wood, and that can alter the accuracy of the tomogram.