Microdensitometric analysis of wood samples: data computation method used at Inra-ERQB (CERD program).

The procedure used at Inra for computing data derived from the microdensitometric analysis of a wood sample is described and discussed. The initial data are in the form of one or several radial density profiles. The first step of the treatment, which is the most time consuming and the only one requiring manual intervention, consists in locating the annual ring limits on each profile of each ring. The intermediate data - which can be corrected using an independent measurement of density (ratio weight/volume of the whole sample) - are then computed for each ring profile. Finally, each ring is described by several 'synthetic' values: the ring width, the mean density, the minimal and maximal density, the earlywood and latewood widths and ratios, and a set of density values (named 'quantiles') describing the shape of the ring profile. ((C) Inra/Elsevier, Paris.).