{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,4]],"date-time":"2026-04-04T22:14:51Z","timestamp":1775340891647,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,3]],"date-time":"2021-12-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1638489600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001711","name":"Swiss National Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["125184"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["125184"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001711","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Imaging"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Understanding the mechanical response of cellular biological materials to environmental stimuli is of fundamental importance from an engineering perspective in composites. To provide a deep understanding of their behaviour, an exhaustive analytical and experimental protocol is required. Attention is focused on softwood but the approach can be applied to a range of cellular materials. This work presents a new non-invasive multi-scale approach for the investigation of the hygro-mechanical behaviour of softwood. At the TOMCAT beamline of the Paul Scherrer Institute, in Switzerland, the swelling behaviour of softwood was probed at the cellular and sub-cellular scales by means of 3D high-resolution phase-contrast X-ray imaging. At the cellular scale, new findings in the anisotropic and reversible swelling behaviour of softwood and in the origin of swelling hysteresis of porous materials are explained from a mechanical perspective. However, the mechanical and moisture properties of wood highly depend on sub-cellular features of the wood cell wall, such as bordered pits, yielding local deformations during a full hygroscopic loading protocol.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jimaging7120263","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,5]],"date-time":"2021-12-05T21:01:45Z","timestamp":1638738105000},"page":"263","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Micro- and Nano-Scales Three-Dimensional Characterisation of Softwood"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5760-3118","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alessandra","family":"Patera","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Turin, National Institute for Nuclear Physics, 10125 Turin, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5537-8682","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anne","family":"Bonnin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"X-ray Tomography Group, Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland"}]},{"given":"Rajmund","family":"Mokso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"X-ray Tomography Group, Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland"},{"name":"Department of Physics, Technical University Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Gibson, L.J., and Ashby, M.F. (1988). Cellular Solids: Structure & Properties, Pergamon Press."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"65","article-title":"Methods of characterization of memory effect of wood","volume":"11","author":"Gorbacheva","year":"2015","journal-title":"Pro Ligno"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"553","DOI":"10.1007\/s00226-013-0611-2","article-title":"Wood as a natural smart material","volume":"48","author":"Ugolev","year":"2014","journal-title":"Wood Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"200","DOI":"10.2472\/jsms.50.9Appendix_200","article-title":"Observation of the Swelling Behavior of Coniferous Cells Using a Confocal Scanning Laser Microscope and a Digital Image Correlation Method","volume":"50","author":"Murata","year":"2001","journal-title":"J. Soc. Mater. Sci. 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