Edinburgh Napier University

  The paper presents the results of non-destructive longitudinal resonance (impulse excitation technique), and mechanical flexural testing, of a batch of European beech wood (Fagus sylvatica L.), grown in the United Kingdom. The material was largely free from visible defects and straight grained, having been visually appearance graded by the sawmill. The dynamic modulus of elasticity of original length boards is compared to density and global modulus of elasticity results from short lengths cut from a subset of those boards, tested in four-point bending about the minor axis. A method of weighting, based on the first mode wavelength, is shown to improve the correlation, partly accounting for variation within the boards, and the relative contribution to the resonance behaviour. The results are used to estimate the structural grading of the full batch and shown to be similar to results from previous small clear testing of UK-grown beech (within 5-10%). The relatively small number of boards from a single batch, from a single location means that the results are only an indication of potential quality, but they give confidence that further research should be done into the potential of UK-grown beech, especially for glued-laminated construction products, as has been done in Europe.