[NTIACNews]Ultrasonic wood characterization

[Chris Coughlin]

Hello All,

The American Institute Of Physics' Physics News Update is reporting that 
a Finnish research team at the University Of Helsinki has found a way to 
use ultrasonics to differentiate silver birch from curly birch, a 
naturally occurring silver birch mutation highly sought for its unique 
wood grain.  Among other things this would allow nondestructive 
determination of the type of tree without harvesting-the curly birch 
variant can be allowed to grow and the less valuable silver birch can be 
harvested immediately.

The paper* by the Electronics Research Unit of the University of 
Helsinki's Department Of Physical Sciences has been approved for 
publication in the Journal Of Applied Physics; until it's published you 
can get more information about their NDE work from their website at 
http://electronics.physics.helsinki.fi/research/ultrasonics/research_ultrasonics.html 
(scroll down to "Ultrasonic testing of industrial grade wood" for more 
on their work with wood).

The original PNU news item is available from 
http://www.aip.org/pnu/2007/split/808-2.html .

*- A. Salmi, T. Hintikka, T. Karppinen, P. Forsman and E. Haeggström, 
"Computerized Ultrasound Differentiation of Curly Birch from Silver 
Birch." Accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Physics (2006).

Regards,
Chris

-- 
Chris Coughlin / NTIAC / 415 Crystal Creek Drive / Austin TX 78746
Phone (800)684-2239 or (512)263-2101x227 / FAX (512)263-3530
Email ccoughlin@ntiac.com <mailto:ccoughlin@ntiac.com> / Web http://www.ntiac.com ; http://www.chriscoughlin.com