Quantitative analysis of micro-porosity of eco-material by using SEM technique

Abstract

Microstructure of the eco-material combining vegetation recovery with slope protection is important for determining plant-growing properties. Several techniques for analyzing the eco-material microstructwe are presented, including the freeze-cut-drying method of preparing samples for scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), the SEM image processing technique and quantifying analysis method of the SEM images, and etc. The aggregates and pores in SEM images are identified using the different mathematics operators, and their effects are compared. The areas of aggregates and pores are obtained using the operator of morphology, and the influences of different thresholds in image segmentation are also discussed. The results show that the method, in which the variation of non-maximum grey-level gradient is limited, improves the effect of edge detections due to a weak distinction existing at the edge between the aggregates and pores in image. The determination of the threshold should combine the image characteristic with filling operation, so as to assure the precision of the image analysis, in which the contact-segmentation is the simplest and most effective method. The results also show that the pore areas in eco-materials are generally larger than those in the correlative soils, and their increment is large as soil fabric being fine. These differences are related to admixture of expansive perlitic. The operator of morphology provides a new method for the image analysis of other porous material microstructure such as soils and concretes.