X-ray microtomography

European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) dieback - a conservation biology challenge.

Monitoring cambial phenology and intra-annual growth dynamics is a useful approach for characterizing the tree growth response to climate change. However, there have been few reports concerning intra-annual wood formation in lowland temperate forests with high time resolution, especially for the comparison between deciduous and coniferous species. The main objective of this study was to determine how the timing, duration and rate of radial growth change between species as related to leaf phenology and the dynamics of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) under the same climatic conditions. We studied two deciduous species, Fagus sylvatica L. and Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl., and an evergreen conifer, Pinus sylvestris L. During the 2009 growing season, we weekly monitored (i) the stem radial increment using dendrometers, (ii) the xylem growth using microcoring and (iii) the leaf phenology from direct observations of the tree crowns. The NSC content was also measured in the eight last rings of the stem cores in April, June and August 2009. The leaf phenology, NSC storage and intra-annual growth were clearly different between species, highlighting their contrasting carbon allocation. Beech growth began just after budburst, with a maximal growth rate when the leaves were mature and variations in the NSC content were low. Thus, beech radial growth seemed highly dependent on leaf photosynthesis. For oak, earlywood quickly developed before budburst, which probably led to the starch decrease quantified in the stem from April to June. For pine, growth began before the needles unfolding and the lack of NSC decrease during the growing season suggested that the substrates for radial growth were new assimilates of the needles from the previous year. Only for oak, the pattern determined from the intra-annual growth measured using microcoring differed from the pattern determined from dendrometer data. For all species, the ring width was significantly influenced by growth duration and not by growth rate, which differs from previous studies. The observed between-species difference at the intra-annual scale is key information for anticipating suitability of future species in temperate forests.

http://max2.ese.u-psud.fr/publications/Michelot_2012_TP.pdf

Comparing the intra-annual wood formation of three European species (Fagus sylvatica, Quercus petraea and Pinus sylvestris) as related to leaf phenology and non-structural carbohydrate dynamics.

X-ray phase-contrast imaging and tomography make use of the refraction of X-rays by the sample in image formation. This provides considerable additional information in the image compared to conventional X-ray imaging methods, which rely solely on X-ray absorption by the sample. Phase-contrast imaging highlights edges and internal boundaries of a sample and is thus complementary to absorption contrast, which is more sensitive to the bulk of the sample. Phase-contrast can also be used to image low-density materials, which do not absorb X-rays sufficiently to form a conventional X-ray image. In the context of materials science, X-ray phase-contrast imaging and tomography have particular value in the 2D and 3D characterization of low-density materials, the detection of cracks and voids and the analysis of composites and multiphase materials where the different components have similar X-ray attenuation coefficients. Here we review the use of phase-contrast imaging and tomography for a wide variety of materials science characterization problems using both synchrotron and laboratory sources and further demonstrate the particular benefits of phase contrast in the laboratory setting with a series of case studies.

In-Line Phase-Contrast X-ray Imaging and Tomography for Materials Science

Bamboo, as a natural hierarchical cellular material, exhibits remarkable mechanical properties including excellent flexibility and fracture toughness. As far as bamboo as a functionally graded bio-composite is concerned, the interactions of different constituents (bamboo fibers; parenchyma cells; and vessels.) alongside their corresponding interfacial areas with a developed crack should be of high significance. Here, by using multi-scale mechanical characterizations coupled with advanced environmental electron microscopy (ESEM), we unambiguously show that fibers' interfacial areas along with parenchyma cells' boundaries were preferred routes for crack growth in both radial and longitudinal directions. Irrespective of the honeycomb structure of fibers along with cellular configuration of parenchyma ground, the hollow vessels within bamboo culm affected the crack propagation too, by crack deflection or crack-tip energy dissipation. It is expected that the tortuous crack propagation mode exhibited in the present study could be applicable to other cellular natural materials as well.

/pdf/crack-propagation-in-bamboo-s-hierarchical-cellular-1xv33d64ey.pdf

Crack propagation in bamboo's hierarchical cellular structure.

3D imaging of microstructure of spruce wood.

Despite the exceptional position of yew among the gymnosperms concerning its elastomechanical properties, no reference values for its elastic constants apart from the longitudinal Young’s modulus have been available from literature so far. Hence, this study’s objective was to determine the Young’s moduli E
 L, E
 R and E
 T and the shear moduli G
 LR, G
 LT and G
 RT of yew wood. For that purpose, we measured the ultrasound velocities of longitudinal and transversal waves applied to small cubic specimens and derived the elastic constants from the results. The tests were carried out at varying wood moisture contents and were applied to spruce specimens as well in order to put the results into perspective. Results indicate that E
 L is in the same order of magnitude for both species, which means that a high-density wood species like yew does not inevitably have to have a high longitudinal Young’s modulus. For the transverse Young’s moduli of yew, however, we obtained 1.5–2 times, for the shear moduli even 3–6 times higher values compared to spruce. The variation of moisture content primarily revealed differences between both species concerning the shear modulus of the RT plane. We concluded that anatomical features such as the microfibril angle, the high ray percentage and presumably the large amount of extractives must fulfil important functions for the extraordinary elastomechanical behaviour of yew wood which still has to be investigated in subsequent micromechanical studies.

/pdf/determination-of-young-s-and-shear-moduli-of-common-yew-and-3mws9op5sp.pdf

Determination of Young’s and shear moduli of common yew and Norway spruce by means of ultrasonic waves

Elastic material properties are one of the most important material characteristics in mechanical modelling. Wood with distinctively different properties in the longitudinal, radial and tangential directions exhibits a strong moisture-dependent material characteristic in the elastic range. In order to characterise beech wood as an orthotropic material, all of the independent elastic properties were determined at different moisture conditions. These characteristic properties have never been determined before as a function of moisture content yet are vital to the field of wood modelling. All elastic parameters, except for some Poisson’s ratios, show a decrease in stiffness with increasing moisture content. In comparison to available literature references at a moisture content of ω ≈ 12%, the identified values were of the same order of magnitude. The determined material properties can be used to investigate the mechanical behaviour of beech wood structures including different moisture conditions.

/pdf/moisture-dependent-orthotropic-elasticity-of-beech-wood-3rshxx55gj.pdf

Moisture-dependent orthotropic elasticity of beech wood

In view of its high density, yew wood has a remarkably low longitudinal Young’s modulus, which makes it unique among coniferous woods. However, the elastic response of yew related to other load directions is largely unknown. Therefore, our goal was to comprehensively characterise the three-dimensional elastic behaviour of yew wood. To achieve this, we performed tensile tests on dog-bone-shaped yew specimens and determined the three Young’s moduli and six Poisson’s ratios using a universal testing machine and a digital image correlation technique. All tests were also applied to spruce as reference species. After including the shear moduli determined in a prior study by our group, all elastic engineering parameters of yew and spruce were ascertained. Based on these values, the three-dimensional elastic behaviour was describable with deformation bodies and polar diagrams. Evaluating these illustrations revealed that yew had a lower stiffness only in the longitudinal direction. In all other three-dimensional directions, spruce was clearly more compliant than yew. Particularly, in the radial–tangential plane, both species varied largely in their degree of anisotropic elasticity. All mentioned differences between yew and spruce originate at the microstructural level.

Three-dimensional elastic behaviour of common yew and Norway spruce

It is well known that in the radial–tangential plane of softwoods, the elastic modulus in the principal directions is clearly higher than the off-axis elastic moduli, which decrease to a minimum at a growth ring angle α of about 45°. However, this angular dependency was experimentally proven by only a few early publications. The aims of this study were (1) to analyze this relationship with up-to-date equipment in compression tests on miniature softwood specimens with varying growth ring angles and (2) to compare the experimental results with those calculated by a tensor transformation to assess whether it is admissible to treat the investigated wood species as orthotropic materials. Two softwoods with distinctly different anatomic structures (Norway spruce and common yew) were chosen, and further properties such as Poisson’s ratios were determined. The results confirm the above-mentioned angle-dependent tendency for spruce elasticity, but also show that it is not valid for softwoods in general since the behavior of yew was completely different. The tissue textures of both species, particularly density and density distribution, were discussed as possible reason for these observed differences. The determined Poisson’s ratios for principal and off-axis load directions may be useful for modeling of material behavior.

/pdf/measurement-of-standard-and-off-axis-elastic-moduli-and-97l0w13x1s.pdf

Daniel Keunecke

Papers

3D imaging of microstructure of spruce wood.

Determination of Young’s and shear moduli of common yew and Norway spruce by means of ultrasonic waves

Moisture-dependent orthotropic elasticity of beech wood

Three-dimensional elastic behaviour of common yew and Norway spruce

Measurement of standard and off-axis elastic moduli and Poisson's ratios of spruce and yew wood in the transverse plane