Evaluation of pin penetration probing technique for the assessment of basic density in air-dried wood
Fast and accurate evaluation of the physical and mechanical properties of engineering materials is of particular importance. The in situ semi-destructive and non-destructive tests versus the static tests for determining the time-consuming physical properties have replaced many traditional methods with reasonable accuracies. Determining the density as one of the most important qualitative and quantitative parameters in the inspection of wood and wood-based products is of great importance. For this purpose, 33 wood specimens from 11 species with varying densities were tested by pin penetration probing. Results were compared with those from the basic density values from traditional methods. The results showed an exponential relationship between the pin penetration depths and the basic density considering the moisture conditions but without any problems. The coefficients of determination while estimating the equality of the basic density via pin penetration probing with the actual basic density for both the testing specimens and the control samples were always over 0.8. Henceforth, this methodology suggested that the density evaluation could inspire higher precision than what has been achieved in previous efforts.