3D reconstruction and visualization from 2D X-ray CT images in the study of ceramic membrane microstructure

Abstract

In the presented study, X-ray computed tomography (CT) technique was used to visualize the three-dimensional (3D) microstructure of ceramic membrane support made of alternative material - fly ash, kaolin and shale. Standard computed tomography output formats provide usually two-dimensional (2D) information about the object being studied in the form of image data set. However, to understand the material internal structure and its mechanical, physicochemical and hydraulic properties 3D visualization is needed. Our work shows that 3D image data reconstruction can be done with freely available DREAM.3D and ParaView software instead of costly commercial ones allowing wider community data sharing and greater freedom in processing. The resulting 3D model was suitable for quantitative pore space analysis and fluid dynamics modelling and provided important morphological information such as pore and mass shape, cracks, spatial distribution and the connectivity of the solid matrix.