Non destructive characterization of wooden members using near infrared spectroscopy

On site characterization of wood members is a very challenging task, after considering all the variables affecting the whole structure itself and material used for construction. The up-to-date procedures are limited to few characterizations, and in general based on visual assessment supported by local drilling resistance analysis, stress-wave time of flight measurement and/or moisture content estimation. The goal of this work was to promote near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as a supplementary tool providing additional information for the expert assessing timber structures. The paper presents several examples of successful NIR application in species recognition, physical properties prediction, evaluation of wood weathering and/or fungal degradation level. However, it must be stated that implementation of NIR in routine assessment protocols requires prior preparation of a dedicated databases of high precision reference values to build reliable, flexible and sufficiently generalized models.