Acoustic tomography of timber elements

Acoustic tomography for the analysis of timber elements is still not widely used, especially for the inspection of structures in service. This is probably due to the fact that data acquisition planning, testing procedure and data interpretation are ticklish tasks, and no standard or guideline are nowadays available to help professionals during tests. In order to investigate different practical factors affecting tomographic results, an experimental campaign has been carried out, using time-of-flight (TOF) measurement, for imaging internal macroscopic heterogeneities in wood. The results suggest which factors should be taken into consideration when acoustic tomography is used and how results can be properly analysed, in order to obtain useful information, during the inspection of timber elements in existing structures. Thus permitting to draw up some basic methodological instructions for timber structures inspection.