photographist

“In the field of the mechanics of wood, I study the variability of viscoelastic behaviour of different species of wood. I have travelled several times to Guyana to work in a spectacular forest which is home to a number of different tropical species and truly amazing animals, creating a very particular sound and light environment. I especially focus on the experimental side of things, to try to model the wood's viscoelastic behaviour. Understanding the material can lead to applications which make it possible to optimise the laws of behaviour of wood and to use it more effectively – in construction or acoustics, for example. By studying the variability of the different species, we could find the optimum use for each one and use the wood more for everyday needs. Knowing that it is ecological and renewable, we do not use it enough.

When the Louvre Museum wanted to change the frame of the Mona Lisa, scientists from my team were consulted to assess the risks of deforming the panel on which it is painted. Taking into account its shape and the direction in which it is cut, my colleagues simulated its behaviour under the influence of hygrometric variations. Then we developed Wood and heritage subject areas. We put sensors behind painted panels, in places where hygrometric or temperature variations are high. By measuring these variations and those of the shape of the panel, we try to define the influence of each parameter. With Japanese and Iranian colleagues, we also try to understand the evolution of wood after hundreds of years of use in a roof frame, a temple or an object. We try to age different woods artificially and to find the same properties as those of wood that has aged naturally.”

Sandrine Bardet
Lecturer, University Montpellier 2

next