Determination of porosity and permeability correlation of leafy vegetable based on X-ray computed tomography and cell segmentation

Abstract

Porosity and permeability are critical physical parameters for accurately modelling macroscale heat and mass transfer processes during the cooling, thermal processing, and storage of leafy vegetables. However, existing estimation methods primarily rely on lumped semi-empirical approaches, which overlook the realistic 3D structural information, limiting insights into microscale water transport behaviour. This study utilised low- and high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) combined with advanced cell segmentation techniques to determine the porosity-permeability correlation of spinach, a representative easily dehydrated leafy vegetable. Experiments demonstrated that the Cellpose, dilation, and erosion algorithms effectively segmented adhering cells and generated lamina and petiole slices with varying porosity gradients. Using 3D reconstruction and seepage simulation, the porosity and permeability of representative elementary volumes (REVs) in the lamina and petiole tissues were calculated, and the pressure and flow rate distributions within the intercellular spaces were visualised. The porosity-permeability relationship was fitted using the Kozeny-Carman (KC) formula as κₗ = 4.839 × 10⁻¹¹φ¹.⁷⁰/(1 - φ)⁰.⁷⁰ for lamina REVs and κₚ = 1.128 × 10⁻¹⁰φ².¹⁶/(1 - φ)¹.¹⁶ for petiole REVs. Grayscale-porosity and porosity-permeability correlations were further applied to characterise the heterogeneity of porosity (2.742%–53.30%) and permeability (4.925 × 10⁻¹⁴ - 2.829 × 10⁻¹¹ m²) of intact spinach. The study aims to provide technical and theoretical support for multiscale modelling in the quality control of leafy vegetables.

Plant phenotyping relevance

X線CT、細胞セグメンテーション、3D再構成を中核として、ホウレンソウ組織の空隙率・透過率という構造的な植物形質を定量化する手法を開発・適用しているため。

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