Structure, morphology and mechanical properties of Rhectophyllum camerunense (RC) plant-fiber. Part I: Statistical description and image-based reconstruction of the cross-section

Based on the analysis of the RC plant-fiber components, we have presented herein a detailed plant-fiber geometric reconstruction process. To this end, a combination of tools have been used in image analysis and processing in order to derive certain event patterns: statistics to describe the statistical properties and Voronoi partitioning to simulate the cellular pattern of the microstructure. The modeling performed is as interesting as a unique and innovative one, being exportable to computer simulations in order to generate fibers of various shapes and dimensions. Based on the reconstructed morphology, anisotropic elastic properties of the RC plant-fiber are then computed in the second part of this paper.

Research highlights▸ Voronoi cells are applied for the first time to a plant-fiber. ▸ A Complete Spatial Randomness (CSR) test is performed successfully. ▸ Centroïd Voronoi cells are generated using Matlab. ▸ A plugin is written to capture vertices in ImageJ Voronoi diagram.