2D pore size distribution in particleboard and Oriented Strand Board

This paper describes the pore sizes and their distribution in common wood based panels, in particular various samples of oriented strand board (OSB) and particleboard (PB). Industrial computer tomography with various resolutions was used to generate images of the samples investigated. Various layers from the outer surfaces and the core layers of the scanned samples were taken for further image processing. For this a special thresholding technique was used for the segmentation of pore area (voids) and material like particles and strands with low density values (low density regions) and higher dense areas (high density regions, compressed wood). Pore sizes and the pore size distributions were then calculated using morphological operators, in particular quasi circular shaped structuring elements of growing diameter and neighbourhood. A linear correlation between pore size and panel density (vertical density) was investigated. This was not only influenced by the presence of interparticular voids, but also by the type of raw material and density variations within the raw material.