Segmentation of wood fibres in 3D CT images using graph cuts

Abstract

To completely segment all individual wood fibres in volume images of fibrous materials presents a challenging problem but is important in understanding the micro mechanical properties of composite materials. This paper presents a filter that identifies and closes pores in wood fibre walls, simplifying the shape of the fibres. After this filter, a novel segmentation method based on graph cuts identifies individual fibres. The methods are validated on a realistic synthetic fibre data set and then applied on μCT images of wood fibre composites. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.