Monitoring of timber structures

Timber structures have been in use for centuries, with proven durability. In recent years, timber has become particularly important, due to its standing as a truly renewable material for construction and carbon storage purposes. The material behaviour of wood is known and understood. The current design concepts for timber structures are also well developed. Nevertheless, the underlying processes of the ageing and deterioration of wood are complex, and the anisotropic structure of wood requires close consideration of its orthotropic material behaviour. This implies that there are a variety of environmental and material parameters that influence the ageing and deterioration of timber. Monitoring is an important tool which can assure the durability of timber structures and optimization of maintenance.