PHOTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF HOMOGENIZED X-RAY IMAGES IN DETERMINING THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

<p>Previous research demonstrated a link between wood strength and brightness intensity in X-ray images. Wood samples were subjected to compression testing along and across the grain, with X-ray imaging performed on the same specimens before the mechanical tests. Differences in the brightness of X-ray images of test specimens were clearly noticeable, both in relation to the type of sampled wood and depending on the specific alignment of X-ray beams relative to the direction of wood fibers in the test specimen.</p> <p>Since wood is an orthotropic and heterotropic material, and such findings were hypothetically expected, the final phase of establishing a non-invasive X-ray method for testing the mechanical properties of wood could be approached. This phase involves the numerical determination of the brightness intensity of X-ray images, thereby opening the possibility of correlating mechanical strength parameters of the sampled wood with the brightness parameters of its X-ray images. </p> <p>Because wood has an anisotropic structural composition, it is expected that the X-ray image of the tested sample would exhibit uneven brightness. Photometric analysis of the X-ray image using computer software allows for assigning appropriate mechanical properties to each point on the image via x, y, v parameters. However, since an individual light point cannot represent the cumulative mechanical properties of the sampled test specimen, it is clear that the task at hand also includes the need for homogenizing the X-ray image. This is achievable through the program's three-dimensional approximation capabilities.</p> <p>The creation of a tonal grayscale through image homogenization would enable the alignment of mechanical strength parameters with brightness intensity values. This process would effectively represent the overall mechanical potential of the wood sample as a cumulative result, linking the homogenized brightness of the X-ray image with the wood’s strength characteristics.</p>