Thermophysical and acoustic properties of wood materials

The team members have been engaged in research in the field of thermophysical and acoustic properties of wood and wood-based materials for a long time. In the field of thermophysical properties, attention is primarily paid to determining the coefficient of thermal and thermal conductivity and heat capacity (mass and volume). Thermophysical properties are investigated from the perspective of the influence of density, humidity, anatomical direction, various forms of modification of wood materials such as steaming, impregnation, heat treatment or changes in properties due to changes in the technology of production of wood-based composite materials (e.g. different types, proportions or grain sizes of fillers and additives). Attention is also paid to research on thermal conditions in wood machining and processing processes. In the field of acoustics, attention is focused on determining the sound absorption of materials and its dependence on the density, porosity or thickness of the material under study. In addition, research is also focused on the field of noise in the living and working environment and the field of building acoustics (air and impact sound insulation).

The team members have a total of 225 publications in the Web of Science Core Collection database with over 2,500 citations and an H-index of 27 (2025). Several publications in the Web of Science have been or are classified as Highly cited papers (currently 2 publications) or Hot cited papers (currently 2 publications). In addition, they are authors or co-authors of many other scientific, professional and pedagogical publications focusing on the subject (e.g. 21 scientific monographs, 10 university books, 17 scripts, 34 proceedings as editors, a total of more than 780 publications). Individual team members have been engaged in research in the given area for a long time and continuously publish their results in high-quality journals classified in the WoS and Scopus databases in the Q1 and Q2 quartiles. In the above research areas, they are or have been responsible researchers or members of research teams in many projects. In the international space, the team members have established professional and scientific cooperation with many individuals or institutions on a European and global scale. The team leader is the deputy head of the international virtual laboratory "Ecofriendly wood composites", whose members are scientists from 11 countries on three continents. In 2014, three team members received the Rector's Award of the Technical University in Zvolen for the best book publication (Assoc. Prof. Krišťák, Assoc. Prof. Němec, Ing. Igaz), the team leader received the Rector's Award of the Technical University for scientific contribution in 2020 and the Rector's Award of the Technical University for significant scientific and research activity in 2022.