Measurement of fibre–fibre contact in three-dimensional images of fibrous materials obtained from X-ray synchrotron microtomography

✍ Scribed by F. Malmberg; J. Lindblad; C. Östlund; K.M. Almgren; E.K. Gamstedt

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 594 KB
• Volume: 637
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0168-9002
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2011.01.080

✦ Synopsis

A series of wood-fibre mats was investigated using high-resolution phase-contrast microtomography at the beamline ID 19 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. A method for data reduction to quantify the degree of fibre-fibre contact has been derived. The degree of fibre-fibre contact and bonding plays a fundamental role in the mechanical properties of cellulose-fibre mats, paper materials and cellulose-fibre composites. The proposed computerised automated method consists of two parts. First, fibre lumens are segmented using a watershed based method. This information is then used to identify fibre-fibre contacts in projections along the z-axis of the material. The method is tested on microtomographic images of mats made of wood pulp fibres, and is shown to successfully detect differences in the amount of fibre-fibre contact between samples. The degree of fibre-fibre contact correlates well with measured out-of-plane strength of the fibrous material.