Comparison of mechanical properties of the eldest larch wood construction with oak wood and spruce wood

The paper discusses mechanical properties of timber for structures – most frequently used spruce wood, historically used oak wood and rarely mentioned larch wood. The main focus is on larch wood extracted from the ceiling of an immovable cultural monument from the 17th century – the determination of its age, its historical importance and mechanical properties. Mechanical properties were obtained by the standard tests in compression parallel and perpendicular to the fibres and in bending. The results of tests are compared to the mechanical properties of oak wood, of commonly used spruce wood and of recently felled larch wood.

Physico-acoustic characteristics of spruce and larche wood

This study deals with non-destructive measurement of wood, i.e. physico-acoustic characteristics (density, dynamic modulus of elasticity, acoustical constant, speed of sound propagation in material and logarithmic dumping decrement). We used two species spruce and larch for measurements. We took wood from two main areas: from Slovakian higher latitudes and from Russia – Siberian areas. Spruce is the main species for the boards of musical instruments and we tried to find another species to replace this one. We measured physico-acoustic properties by two devices: The ultra-sonic tester and device “MEARFA” based on searching correct frequency for each sample. The results show that spruce for top instruments has acoustic constant approx. 12 m4∙kg-1∙s-1 and the “best” value for larch was approx. 10 m4∙kg-1∙s-1. If we compare the methods of measurement of the sound velocity through samples the results for ultrasonic testing are much higher than those provided by resonance-dynamic method. The article also describes differences between physico-acoustical characteristics of sap wood and heart wood, and differences between species.