A novel 3D volumetric method for directly quantifying porosity and pore space morphology in flocculated suspended sediments

Lawrence, Tom, Carr, Simon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4487-3551 , Manning, Andrew, Wheatland, Jonathan, Bushby, Andy and Spencer, Kate (2022) A novel 3D volumetric method for directly quantifying porosity and pore space morphology in flocculated suspended sediments. MethodsX, 10 . p. 101975.

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Abstract

Flocculated suspended sediments (flocs) are found in a variety of environments globally, and their transport and behavior bear substantial importance to several industries including fisheries, aquaculture, and shipping. Additionally, the modelling of their behavior is important for estuarine and coastal flood prediction and defence, and the process of flocculation occurs in other unrelated industries such as paper and chemical production. Floc porosity is conventionally assessed using inferential indirect or proxy data approaches. These methods underestimate floc porosity % by c. 30% and cannot measure the micro-scale complexity of these pore spaces and networks, rendering inputs to models sub-optimal. This study introduces a novel 3D porosity and pore space quantification protocol, that produces directly quantified porosity % and pore space data.
• 3D floc data from micro-CT scanning is segmented volumetrically.
• This segmented volume is quantified to extract porosity and several pore space parameters from the floc structure.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	MethodsX
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	2215-0161
Departments:	Institute of Science and Environment > Forestry and Conservation
Additional Information:	Simon J. Carr, Institute of Science and the Environment, University of Cumbria, Ambleside, UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Depositing User:	Insight Administrator
SWORD Depositor:	Insight Administrator
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2023 10:07
Last Modified:	13 Jan 2024 14:30
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/6837

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