Zerstörungsfreie Bestimmung elastischer Eigenschaften quadratischer 3-schichtiger Brettsperrholzplatten mit symmetrischem Aufbau

Zusammenfassung: Die Steifigkeiten von Holzwerkstoffen, wie z.B. von Brettsperrholzplatten, zählen bei statischen Berechnungen zu den wichtigsten Materialeigenschaften. Bei Platten sind es insbesondere die zwei Elastizitätsmoduln (Eii) in Plattenebene und die drei Schubmoduln (Gij). Um diese Parameter zerstörungsfrei und mit wenig Arbeitsaufwand bestimmen zu können, wurde ein Verfahren entwickelt, mit dem auf Grundlage von Schwingungsanalysen alle fünf Steifigkeiten in nur einem Versuch bestimmt werden können. Das Verfahren wurde auf 24 aus zwei verschiedenen Herstellerwerken stammenden, quadratischen Brettsperrholzplatten mit Seitenlänge 2.5m und einer Dicke von 70mm mit zwei unterschiedlichen, symmetrischen Aufbauten angewandt. Die so experimentell ermittelten Steifigkeiten wurden mit Biegeversuchen verifiziert und mit auf Grundlage der Verbundtheorie berechneten Steifigkeiten verglichen. Für alle Platten konnten unabhängig von deren Produktionsmethode und Aufbau vier Steifigkeiten sicher bestimmt und die Richtigkeit der Werte verifiziert werden. Die Bestimmbarkeit der Steifigkeit G23 ist von der Geometrie der Platte abhängig. Bemerkenswert ist die Tatsache, dass in der Praxis oft angewendete Steifigkeitsberechnungen, die unter der Annahme durchgeführt wurden, dass das Rohmaterial der einzelnen Schichten der Festigkeitsklasse C24 entspricht, zu optimistische Werte liefern könne

Acoustic wood tomography on trees and the challenge of wood heterogeneity

The assessment of tree stability requires information about the location and the geometry of fungal decay or of a cavity in the interior of the trunk. This work aims at specifying which size of decay or cavity can be detected non-destructively by acoustic wood tomography. In the present work, the elastic waves that propagate in a trunk during a tomographic measurement were visualized by numerical simulations. The numerical model enabled to systematically investigate the influence of fungal decay on tomographic measurements neglecting the heterogeneity of wood. The influence of wood heterogeneity was studied in laboratory experiments on trunks. The experiments indicated that the waveforms of the measured signals are by far more sensitive to the natural heterogeneity of trunk wood than the travel times, thereby making waveforms unsuitable for decay detection. Thus, it is recommended to further develop the travel time inversion algorithms for trunks and to neglect the information in waveforms or amplitudes. Fungal decay is detectable if the influence of the decay is distinguishable from the influence of the heterogeneity. It was found from the numerical analysis that the cross-section of a cavity, which is larger than 5% of the total cross-section of the trunk, can be detected by acoustic wood tomograph

Rolling shear modulus and damping factor of spruce and decayed spruce estimated by modal analysis

Modal analysis was used to determine the rolling shear modulus of Norway spruce samples that were either untreated or inoculated with fungi. The resonance frequencies of centimeter-range cuboids were measured using contact-less laser interferometry. A three-dimensional theoretical model describing the orthotropic behavior of the material was used to calculate the resonance frequencies. Using an iterative scheme based on the least-squares method, the value of the rolling shear modulus was then extracted. In this first investigation, the decrease in the rolling shear modulus and the weight loss of Norway spruce inoculated with white-rot fungi Heterobasidion annosum and Ganoderma lipsiense were studied for three different exposure times ranging from 4 to 12weeks. Comparison of measured and theoretical resonance frequencies confirmed that operation was in the applicable range of the theoretical model for the inoculated specimens. A decrease in rolling shear modulus of up to 10% (H. annosum) and 50% (G. lipsiense) was foun

A simple anisotropy correction procedure for acoustic wood tomography

Anisotropy of acoustic propagation velocities is a ubiquitous feature of wood. This needs to be considered for successful application of travel time tomography, an increasingly popular technique for non-destructive testing of living trees. We have developed a simple correction scheme that removes first-order anisotropy effects. The corrected travel-time data can be inverted with isotropic inversion codes that are commercially available. Using a numerical experiment, we demonstrate the consequences of ignoring anisotropy effects and outline the performance of our correction scheme. The new technique has been applied to two spruce samples. Subsequent inspection of the samples revealed a good match with the tomogram

In situ observations of the Swiss periglacial environment using GNSS instruments

Monitoring of the periglacial environment is relevant for many disciplines including glaciology, natural hazard management, geomorphology, and geodesy. Since October 2022, Rock Glacier Velocity (RGV) is a new Essential Climate Variable (ECV) product within the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). However, geodetic surveys at high elevation remain very challenging due to environmental and logistical reasons. During the past decades, the introduction of low-cost global navigation satellite system (GNSS) technologies has allowed us to increase the accuracy and frequency of the observations. Today, permanent GNSS instruments enable continuous surface displacement observations at millimetre accuracy with a sub-daily resolution. In this paper, we describe decennial time series of GNSS observables as well as accompanying meteorological data. The observations comprise 54 positions located on different periglacial landforms (rock glaciers, landslides, and steep rock walls) at altitudes ranging from 2304 to 4003 ma.s.l. and spread across the Swiss Alps. The primary data products consist of raw GNSS observables in RINEX format, inclinometers, and weather station data. Additionally, cleaned and aggregated time series of the primary data products are provided, including daily GNSS positions derived through two independent processing tool chains. The observations documented here extend beyond the dataset presented in the paper and are currently continued with the intention of long-term monitoring. An annual update of the dataset, available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.948334 (Beutel et al., 2022),​​​​​​​ is planned. With its future continuation, the dataset holds potential for advancing fundamental process understanding and for the development of applied methods in support of e.g. natural hazard management

The feasibility of canine rabies elimination in Africa: dispelling doubts with data

<p><b>Background:</b> Canine rabies causes many thousands of human deaths every year in Africa, and continues to increase throughout much of the continent.</p> <p><b>Methodology/Principal Findings:</b> This paper identifies four common reasons given for the lack of effective canine rabies control in Africa: (a) a low priority given for disease control as a result of lack of awareness of the rabies burden; (b) epidemiological constraints such as uncertainties about the required levels of vaccination coverage and the possibility of sustained cycles of infection in wildlife; (c) operational constraints including accessibility of dogs for vaccination and insufficient knowledge of dog population sizes for planning of vaccination campaigns; and (d) limited resources for implementation of rabies surveillance and control. We address each of these issues in turn, presenting data from field studies and modelling approaches used in Tanzania, including burden of disease evaluations, detailed epidemiological studies, operational data from vaccination campaigns in different demographic and ecological settings, and economic analyses of the cost-effectiveness of dog vaccination for human rabies prevention.</p> <p><b>Conclusions/Significance:</b> We conclude that there are no insurmountable problems to canine rabies control in most of Africa; that elimination of canine rabies is epidemiologically and practically feasible through mass vaccination of domestic dogs; and that domestic dog vaccination provides a cost-effective approach to the prevention and elimination of human rabies deaths.</p&gt

A decade of detailed observations (2008-2018) in steep bedrock permafrost at the Matterhorn Hörnligrat (Zermatt, CH)

The PermaSense project is an ongoing interdisciplinary effort between geo-science and engineering disciplines and started in 2006 with the goals of realizing observations that previously have not been possible. Specifically, the aims are to obtain measurements in unprecedented quantity and quality based on technological advances. This paper describes a unique >10-year data record obtained from in situ measurements in steep bedrock permafrost in an Alpine environment on the Matterhorn Hörnligrat, Zermatt, Switzerland, at 3500ma:s:l. Through the utilization of state-of-the-art wireless sensor technology it was possible to obtain more data of higher quality, make these data available in near real time and tightly monitor and control the running experiments. This data set (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.897640,Weber et al., 2019a) constitutes the longest, densest and most diverse data record in the history of mountain permafrost research worldwide with 17 different sensor types used at 29 distinct sensor locations consisting of over 114.5 million data points captured over a period of 10 or more years. By documenting and sharing these data in this form we contribute to making our past research reproducible and facilitate future research based on these data, e.g., in the areas of analysis methodology, comparative studies, assessment of change in the environment, natural hazard warning and the development of process models. Finally, the cross-validation of four different data types clearly indicates the dominance of thawing-related kinematics