Using of image processing to study impregnation process in materials

Digital image processing is used in various spheres of production, medicine, as well as for laboratory researches. Many technical and scientific problems are solved successfully. One of the such problem is percolation (impregnation) - the theory what describes the appearance of infinite connected structures consisting of elements. This theory is used in field of capillary-porous material, such as leather or wood, in order to study their impregnation process and mass transfer. The purpose of this work is to study the possibility of determination speed and depth of chemical materials impregnation in capillary-porous materials using digital image processing techniques. The main objects of our research were the leather of cattle and linden wood samples. As leather tanning composition dry chrome tanning reagent was used. On it's basis aqueous solution at 90°C temperature was prepared. Aqueous solutions of dyes was used for wood samples processing. For the research the program has been developed by authors. This program determines color components on pictures taken during the leather tanning process in certain time interval. Digital image processing data determine quantitative characteristics of percolation process on porous materials. The mass transfer rate of leather tanning and wood impregnation based on the program data has been obtained. The method allows to improve the accuracy of determining the amount of reagent seeping into the porous materials, reduce laboriousness and material spending on research.