Scalable morphological accessibility of complex microstructures

Abstract

This paper addresses the descriptors-based characterization of dense 3D microstructures using the unifying concept of accessibility, mixing local shape features with global topology. Underlying percolation and constrictivity features are jointly considered by probing the connected components of the microstructure with structuring elements with increasing sizes. Adapted morphological operations are combined to provide a scalable protocol embedding suitable descriptors applied on accessible volumes, yielding a sharp discrimination power. The suggested framework named A-protocol can efficiently analyze complex microstructures by applying a stratified sampling for the selection of paths’ endpoints, when connected. It stops when percolation ends, at a critical radius value. The A-protocol is tested on Cox multi-scale Boolean models using the Euler number as an arbitrarily chosen embedded descriptor. This computational protocol is available in the open access software environment plug im!.