Quantitative Characterization of 3D Pore Structure in Porous Limestone

摘要

The pore structure in intact and inelastically deformed Indiana limestone have been studied using x-ray microtomography imaging. Guided by detailed microstructural observations and using Multi-level Otsu's thresholding method, the 3D images acquired at voxel side length of 4 μm were segmented into three domains: solid grains, macropores and an intermediate zone dominated by microporosity. Local Porosity can be defined to infer the porosity of each voxel. The macropores were individually identified by morphological processing and their shape quantified by their sphericity and equivalent diameter. With this segmentation, we obtained statistics on macropores on intact and deformed Indiana limestone which shows that inelastic compaction was followed by a significant reduction in the number of macropores. And also our results revealed the great potentiality to produce a quantitative analysis on porous material with the aid of micro CT images.