Application of Industrial Computer Tomography to Determine Wood Porosity

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to analyse the limitations of iCT - industrial computer tomography for measuring the wood pores characteristics as a new non-destructive method which is primarily intended to measure and inspect complete components primarily made of plastics or light metal. The subject matter of this paper are wood samples of paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa) and ash (Fraxinus excelsior) before and after thermal treatment. Porosity, pore volume and distribution of pores on the wood samples before and after the heat treatment were measured by iCT Metrotom 1500. The total porosity of the samples before thermal treatment was 5.28 % (paulownia) and 14.90 % (ash), while after thermal treatment, porosity increased to 9.50 % (paulownia) and to 30.78 % (ash). Changes in the porosity of the samples before and after heat treatment show an increase in porosity of 3.87 % (paulownia) and 15.88 % (ash).