Curvilinear-tree-ring measurements in archaeological wood samples from X-ray computed tomography

In this paper X-ray computed tomography imaging data is used to perform nondestructive tree-ring width measurements in three archaeological wooden samples. Measurements of the curvilinear-tree-ring widths are performed using two approaches: firstly, measuring manually distance between points on consecutive tree-rings along orthogonal radii and, secondly, a recently proposed computational approach which averages all calculated pairwise radial distances whole profile. The results show that irregularity shape an important factor be considered performing measurements. For irregular shaped tree-rings, deviations up 1.15 mm were observed output both measurement’s approaches. It concluded only rays not always accurate enough and therefore averaging profile recommended.