For the assessmentand for monitoring of timber structures there are numerous promising methods that enable the quantitative description of the current condition of construction elements or parts of a structure. This concerns material properties like modulus of elasticity, moisture content and density as well as structural properties like dynamic characteristics, localization of inhomogeneities, cracks, and biological attack. During the work in COST Action FP 1101, since 2012 the capability of experimental methods are discussed and compared. This covers electrical and electromagnetic wave methods (resistivity, microwave, Radar, X-Ray), elastic waves (ultrasound, pile testing) and mechanical testing (static and dynamic). Describing and collecting the use of the experimental methods for monitoring purposes was the objective of working group 3 "Monitoring of Timber Structures" of the COST Action. Monitoring capabilities will extend the use of timber structures to further applications in civil engineering. So far, no standard exists but collections of application examples and review papers representing the state of the art. From there needs for further developments regarding monitoring and NDT methods for timber structures can be identified and these are described in this paper.
There is a great demand for non-destructive testing methods for quality assurance and to assess the safety and durability of wooden structures. Ultrasonic echo technique with shear waves in the frequency range of 50 kHz is one of those promising methods and is already frequently applied for usual and glued laminated timber. The article describes the development and first results for an imaging method for this purpose. The highly anisotropic properties of the ultrasonic velocity have to be considered. A 3D-SAFT (Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique) imaging scheme is developed initially for synthetic data resulting from modelling the elastic wave propagation. The main part of the paper describes the experimental validation of this evaluation technique by experimental studies applying automated ultrasonic scanning techniques. 3D ultrasonic imaging results are described for test specimens made from pine and spruce wood. Another object of investigation was a pedestrian bridge made from siberian larch.