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Ultrasonic Tomography For Non Destructive Testing of Living Trees

The document summarizes research on using ultrasonic tomography as a non-destructive testing method for assessing standing trees. Researchers conducted ultrasonic velocity measurements on trees with internal decay and processed the data using tomography software. The results showed good agreement with the actual distribution of mechanical properties in investigated tree sections, indicating ultrasonic tomography offers advantages over conventional inspection methods and could provide detailed internal imaging of trees.

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Lathifa Nur Ramdhania
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86 views

Ultrasonic Tomography For Non Destructive Testing of Living Trees

The document summarizes research on using ultrasonic tomography as a non-destructive testing method for assessing standing trees. Researchers conducted ultrasonic velocity measurements on trees with internal decay and processed the data using tomography software. The results showed good agreement with the actual distribution of mechanical properties in investigated tree sections, indicating ultrasonic tomography offers advantages over conventional inspection methods and could provide detailed internal imaging of trees.

Uploaded by

Lathifa Nur Ramdhania
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GNGTS Atti del 19 Convegno Nazionale / 03.

10

L.V. Socco (1), L. Sambuelli (1) and G. Nicolotti (2)


(1) (2)

DIGET, Politecnico di Torino DVAPRA, Universit di Torino

ULTRASONIC TOMOGRAPHY FOR NON DESTRUCTIVE TESTING OF LIVING TREES


Standing trees assessment for risk evaluation or for urban forestry management is usually carried out following the V.T.A. (Visual Trees Assessment) procedure (Matteck and Breloer, 1994) that includes a phase of instrumental measurements of internal defects, performed by means of a punctual evaluation of sonic waves velocity generated by electronic hammers and a measurement of wood penetrability using penetrometers. Most of the instruments used for this purpose can not be considered completely nondestructive because they need to insert into the wood probes or transducers and, beside this, they supply only punctual information. The wide practical use of the V.T.A. in arboriculture, during these last years, supported a new interest in applying diagnostic technologies more and more rapid and precise. Ultrasonic velocity, being correlated with the mechanical properties of wood, could be used as a diagnostic parameter for decay detection. Both laboratory and in situ ultrasonic measurements were therefore carried out in order to assess the feasibility of ultrasonic tomography as a surveying tool for living trees. Data acquisition was performed by means of a PUNDIT (Portable Ultrasonic Non-destructive Digital Indicating Tester) equipped with receiver and transmitter piezoelectric transducers, with operating frequency of 54 kHz. Exponential shaped probes have been chosen in order to improve the coupling with the tree bark. The ultrasonic equipment was connected to an oscilloscope and the signals were recorded on a laptop in order to perform further signal processing. Trees with internal decay have been investigated and later cut down. The measurements have been carried out on 16 equidistant points around the investigated section perimeter obtaining 120 independent acquisitions on each trunk section. The measuring points coordinates have been detected by using a simple mechanical gage designed on purpose. After tree cutting down, laboratory measurements on wood disks and specimens were performed in order to assess quantitatively the tomographic result reliability. Statistical analysis of data led to considerations on the main aspects connected to the tomographic imaging, such as uncertainty, spatial resolution and anisotropy. For each Source-Receiver couple the value of a mean velocity was calculated identifying the ray path with the distance S-R. The velocity distribution has shown, in some cases, a clear bi-modal pattern, that put on evidence two velocity values more often occurring in the mean velocity population. Where the comparison with laboratory samples has been possible, these two velocity values have been found very close to mean values of the velocity detected on samples respectively on radial and tangential direction. The software used to process the data is MIGRATOM, by USBM, developed for seismic borehole data interpretation and suitable for ultrasonic data. The inversion procedure is based on a SIRT algorithm (Simultaneous Iterative Reconstruction Technique). Because of the strong velocity contrasts present in case of decays, the

GNGTS Atti del 19 Convegno Nazionale / 03.10

forward model calculation was performed using a curved rays processing. External constraints were deducted by the statistical pre-processing and used in order to improve the result reliability. The first Fresnel zone radius was calculated for each measurement and the mode of Fresnel zone radius distribution was assumed as minimum dimension for pixels size, each time checking also that the number of cells was coherent with the number of acceptable measurements. Tomographic processing was also optimized taking into account experimental uncertainties. Cubic samples were obtained by wood disk correspondent to the investigated tree sections and measurements were carried out not only to directly assess the tomographic results, but also in order to assess weather the method was capable to discriminate longitudinal, tangential and radial velocity values, in spite of the measuring uncertainty. The results obtained show that the tomographic image of the ultrasonic velocity distribution is in good agreement with the distribution of the mechanical properties of the investigated section and therefore the proposed methodology offers many advantages with regard to surveying methods commonly used.
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Fig. 1 - An example of ultrasonic tomography result.

REFERENCES Berndt H, Schniewind A P, Johnson G C, 1999. High-resolution ultrasonic imaging of wood. Wood Science and Technology. 33: 185-198. Biagi E., Gatteschi G., Masotti L., Zanini A., 1994. Tomografia ad ultrasuoni per la caratterizzazione difettologica del legno. Alta frequenza Rivista di elettronica 6, (2) 48-57. Bucur V, 1999. Acoustics as a tool for the Nondestructive Testing of Wood. Int. Symposium on NDT Contribution to the Infrastructure Safety Systems. November 22-26, 1999, Torres, Brazil. Eds. UFSM, Santa Maria Brazil. Comino E., Socco, Martinis R., Nicolotti G., Sambuelli L. 2000 b. Ultrasonic tomography for wood decay diagnosis. In: Int. Symposium on Plant Health in Urban Horticulture. Eds. Backhaus G. F., Balder H., Idczak E.. Braunschweig 22-25 May 2000. 279. Mattheck C., Breloer H., 1994. Field guide for visual tree assessment (VTA). Arboricultural Journal, 18, 1-23.

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