News

  • Winter course on instrumental tree assessment

    Between January 17 and February 2, 2024 Fakopp Enterprise will host free training courses on instrumental tree assessment.

    • Lecturer: Dr. Ferenc Divos, owner of Fakopp Enterprise and professor at Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences
    • Language: English
    • Duration: 1 hour each lecture
    • Time: Each lecture is presented twice a day with the same content: 9 AM and 4 PM Central European time, you are free to choose between these two
    • Cost: free, but registration is necessary

    Registration

    • Registration: send an e-mail to Ms. Blanka Teleki:
    • Please include the lecture date and time: 9 AM CET or 4 PM CET

    January 17

    Acoustic tomography: Sound propagation in trees, possibilities and limitations

    • Mechanical waves in solids, longitudinal (p), transverse (s) and surface waves
    • Effect of anatomical orientation, radial, tangential, fiber direction
    • Single path stress wave approach, decay/cavity detection
    • 2D acoustic tomography, self-calibration, inversion algorithm
    • 3D acoustic tomography
    • Limitations: acoustic shortcut, ring shake, deep crack visualization

    January 19

    Acoustic tomography and biomechanics

    • Interpretation of acoustic tomographic image, biomechanical interpretation
    • Mechanical stresses in tree: compression, bending and shear
    • Wind load calculation
    • Bending stress from wind load and tree leaning
    • Compression stress from self-load
    • Safety factor calculation and interpretation

    January 22

    Acoustic tomography for ArborSonic3D users, new features in the software

    • Ludwig sensors
    • GPS data
    • Controlling the self-calibration algorithm
    • New warning in case of low velocities
    • Low Energy Bluetooth capabilities for new hardware
    • Limitation in the Android software

    January 24

    Pulling Test basics: Possibilities and limitations

    • Pulling test inclino-method for root investigation
    • Pulling test elasto-method for trunk investigation
    • Evaluating the correctness of the fit between the measured and generalized uprooting curve
    • Reasons for a poor fit (wind, loose inclinometer, too fast pulling, root failure)
    • Correction of the raw data in case of a poor fit

    January 26

    Pulling test: The uprooting curve

    • Importance of the root investigations, failure mode statistics: breakage of trunk versus uprooting failure
    • Principle of the pulling test
    • How many inclinometers are necessary?
    • Uprooting curve, uprooting test
    • Verification of the uprooting curve
    • Lower limit of the minimum inclination for a measurement to be meaningful
    • Upper limit of the inclination during the measurement
    • Effect of the soil moisture content on the safety factor

    January 29

    Acoustic root detection

    • Principle of the acoustic root detection
    • The acoustic root detection procedure
    • Velocity limit setting
    • Distance between test points
    • Visualization of the result
    • Recommended application and limitation

    January 31

    Dynamic version of the pulling test: DynaRoot and DynaTree

    • Pulling test limitations: static/dynamic load, anchor point availability, vertical load
    • Solution: Using wind as loading “device” and consequences
    • Requirements for sensors
    • Chaotic nature of wind and tree interaction
    • Statistical window width
    • Visualization of the test result
    • Safety factor calculation

    February 2

    DynaRoot and DynaTree users’ meeting to share experience

    • Case studies indicating of the importance of
      • wind direction
      • location of the anemometer
      • the minimum wind speed requirement
    • We are inviting feedback from DynaRoot/DynaTree users:
      • short user presentation about interesting/strange test result: a short PowerPoint presentation or simple explanation of the experience
      • organization of the workflow with regards to wind dependencies
      • finding good/acceptable anemometer location