Application of X – ray micro computed tomography on wood and wood based composites

Timber is one of the most important renewable resources world wide and covers a broad range of applications as solid wood as well as in terms of wood based composites. A strong demand for that biological tissue and the given narrowness thereof results in a constant innovation process of wood based products in order to meet increasing requirements of technical and economic interests. Mechanical and physical properties of such products highly depend on numerous factors as for instance of the type of wood, the particle size and different added materials. In order to improve existing and develop new products a deeper knowledge of the relationship between structure and physical properties is needed. X-ray computed tomography at different scaling offers cross sectional images of an object visualizing density, internal defects as well as size and distribution of different particles. In this study different methods regarding the characterization of such timber derived products are presented on the basis of investigations that were carried out at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences in Upper Austria.