Wave propagation in a wooden bar
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Towards Biomimicking Wood: Fabricated Free-standing Films of Nanocellulose, Lignin, and a Synthetic Polycation
Published on: June 17, 2014
István A Veres1, Mahir B Sayir
1Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Institute of Mechanical Systems, Center of Mechanics, ETH Zentrum, Zürich CH-8092, Switzerland. veres@imes.mavt.ethz.ch
Abstract:
In this paper we will present a method to determine the material properties of a wooden bar with rectangular cross-section using guided waves in the measurement. We modelled the wood as an orthotropic material with nine independent constants. We determined the dispersion curves theoretically in the three-dimensional case using a semi-analytical finite element method. In our laboratory we excited transversal and longitudinal waves in wooden bars of 2.5-4 m length by piezoceramic transducers. We measured the displacement or the velocity of the surface of the bar by a laser-interferometer. The dispersion curves of the bar are determined from the measurement by the linear prediction method. We related the dispersion curves and the material properties. We found the material properties by parametric model fitting.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Damped Oscillations
Although friction and other non-conservative...
Travelling Waves
Water waves, sound waves, and seismic waves are some examples of mechanical waves. For water waves, the wave propagation medium is water;...
Reflection of Waves
Propagation of Waves
Consider a scenario where a wave propagates from a string of low linear mass density to a string of high linear mass density. In such a case, the reflected wave is out of phase with respect to the incident wave, however the...
Propagation Speed of Electromagnetic Waves
Standing Waves in a Cavity

