The use of acoustics for the wood quality assessment of standing P. taeda trees

Abstract

One method of evaluating potential wood product performance is the use of acoustic tools for identifying trees with high stiffness. Acoustic velocities for 100 standing loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) trees, obtained with the transmitting and receiving probes placed on the same-face and opposite-faces, were compared using FAKOPP’s TreeSonic. Significant differences in velocity between the two methods were found. Variation in velocities from hit-to-hit was 62% less using the opposite-face method compared to the same-face method. A felled tree acoustic device, Fibre-Gen’s HM200, was used to evaluate the 6 potential flight paths. Standing tree acoustic velocities were calculated for all 6 flights paths for 79 loblolly trees, in addition to felled tree acoustic velocities. There was no one particular hypothesized flight path that predicted felled tree acoustics overwhelmingly better than any other flight path. It was found that acoustic velocity, both in standing and felled trees increased with age.