Preliminary Research on Bubble Characteristics of Ancient Glaze Using OCT Technology

Abstract

The bubble is one of the most common feature in ancient glaze. The size and distribution of bubbles are closely associated with recipes of the raw materials for the body and glaze and the making process. To characterize the bubbles is essential for the study of ceramic production process, production places, times characteristics and so on. In order to explore the possibility of using the optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging technology to characterize the bubbles and the bubble distribution characteristic in glaze of ancient porcelain, sweep frequency OCT imaging system is used to detect five different types ancient porcelain chips. According to the two dimensional sectional images and three dimensional tomographic images of the transparent layer of glaze obtained by the OCT imaging system, the two dimensional sectional images characteristics and three dimensional slices characteristics of the bubbles in glaze are studied. The bubble characteristics in the glaze and its possible causes that gases in the body of the ceramic overflow to the glaze layer in the firing process are comprehensively analyzed. Meantime, the size of bubble is calculated according to the two dimensional sectional images based on pixel, and the result is compared with the traditional microscopic test result. The bubble size, two dimensional sectional characteristics and three dimensional tomographic image characteristics of opaque glaze are also studied. Experimental results show that the bubble characteristics in glaze of different ancient porcelain chips are obvious difference, the result of the bubble size calculated based on pixel coincides with the result of the bubble size observed by traditional microscope with ten times magnification, slices of the body near the body-glaze binding region based on OCT imaging technology three dimensional tomography can effectively reflect the bubble characteristics in glaze. The measurement of using OCT imaging technology to characterize bubble characteristics of the glaze is proposed, and the feasibility and the validity of the measurement are certified, and the nondestructive detection of bubble characteristics in ancient porcelain glaze is realized. Especially for the analysis of bubble characteristics of opaque glaze, the OCT imaging technology overcomes the limitations of using the traditional microscope technology to study the distribution of bubble in glaze in the past, and provides a novel, reliable analysis method for the analysis of ceramic glaze bubble characteristics.