Quality assurance of timber structures by new monitoring methods for the moisture content of wood

Wood is a hygroscopic material and can absorb or release moisture from the surrounding climate. The wood moisture content (MC) influences the material strengths and stiffnesses as well as the long-term load-bearing behaviour. For this reason, the continuous monitoring of wood moisture content is a suitable early warning system to increase the quality of wood structures in a pioneering way and to detect changes in time. The paper presents several suitable measuring methods for the MC and explains their advantages, accuracies, and applications. The explanations are supported by case studies.