Using High-Technology Instruments to Assess Defects in Trees

Plot of a sonic tomography analysis. The top picture shows the points at which the impulse generators, mounted on elastic belts, are applied. The middle pictures shows the theoretical tracing of waves. The bottom picture shows trunk areas with the same density, obtained by a PC-processing of the speed of the waves. In the bottom picture, the solid black areas show healthy wood (wave speed > 1,700 m/sec [5,576 ft/sec]), while the shaded areas indicate decayed wood (wave speed < 700–800 m/sec [2,296–2,624 ft/sec]). (Photo by ISMES-Arbotech.)