European standards require knowing the mechanical properties of each piece of wood before any application. Grading machines exist, but they are mostly aimed to grade wood from coniferous species of the Northern European countries, thus, mechanical grading is the major challenge for the use of hardwood in construction industries. The aim of this thesis is to develop new methods able to predict mechanical properties of low-grade French oaks from non-destructive measurements. The main focus is on the fiber orientation which gives important information about local mechanical properties.

Fibers deviation around a knot