NON-DESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION WOOD POLES USED IN ELECTRIC LINE IN THE METROPOLITAN REGION OF PORTO ALEGRE

This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of non-destructive method by the use of ultrasound to estimate the degradation caused by wood decay organisms on wood poles. Was made a visual evaluation by ASTM D3345 (1994) and ultrasonic evaluation with semi-direct transmission in longitudinal direction. For this, was used an ultrasound equipment and two pairs of two transducers types, a plane face and point-contact. The ultrasonic evaluations demonstrated that the utilization of point-contact transducers has the best adjustment of the regression equations between visual and ultrasonic evaluation. The coefficient of determination for this type of transducers was above 60%, demonstrating that the use of this method becomes an important and efficient tool.