Porosity analysis

Porosity describes the amount of pore space in a volume and occurs naturally in e.g. lava stones, chalk, or plants, but it can also occur in man-made products. Especially in 3D printed materials, it is often crucial to determine the porosity and analyse the pore space. If the pores can be resolved by X-ray CT, the pore space can be visualised and analysed, both on the overall 3D image, but also locally, e.g. to analyse if local variations occur. 

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Movie showing a basalt stone and a visualization of the pore space. The porosity analysis was performed on a subvolume and pores were segmented according to their X-ray absorption. The pores were first shown in red and the remaining material in blue and at the last step, the pores were separated, resulting in a lot of connected pores (blue) and a few other pores (different colour than blue). 
Image showing a 2D slice of a sample containing bigger and smaller pores (black, round) and two different materials, one more absorbing (grey and white) and the other less absorbing (dark, irregularly shaped).

We offer to measure:

  • the full pore volume and the individual pores’ volumes, 
  • the shape of the individual pores (sphericity or eccentricity and equivalent diameter),
  • the pore network or connectivity of the pores,
  • the local diameter in a connected pore volume (local thickness, corresponding to ‘the diameter of a complex cave in a mountain’)
  • the spatial occurrence of the parameters mentioned above.

Examples of previous work 

Previous examples where we analysed pores included the analysis of pellets for fish food, the analysis of window components, 3D printed metal samples, catalysts or gypsum.