Wood properties: future needs, measurement and modelling

Abstract

Wood products differ from other manufactured products by the fact that they originate from raw material developed in forest trees, according to complex biological processes, influenced by environmental conditions and changes. These conditions depend on silviculture, in turn influenced by economic, ecological, and social factors. Forests are an important carbon sink. The subsequent sequestration of carbon in wood products is allowed by the consumption of durable products corresponding to traditional and innovative utilizations. Within this context, one of the main challenges for the current forest-wood research is to bring together the knowledge on how wood properties are developed and can be controlled in forests and the performance required for traditional and emerging end-use wood products. The success as raw material and as manufactured and sometimes complex products requires an improved understanding of wood properties and the capacity of accurately measuring them, both in standing trees and not far to the service conditions, and assembling the successive knowledge along the forest-wood chain in relevant models and simulation tools.