In this article, we report the use of a Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope (CLSM) to apply a qualitative assessment of atmospheric corrosion on steel samples. From the CLSM, we obtain high-resolution images, together with a 3D heightmap. The performance of four different segmentation algorithms that use the high-resolution images as input is qualitatively assessed and discussed. A novel 3D segmentation algorithm based on the shape index is presented and compared to the 2D segmentation algorithms. From this analysis, we conclude that there is a significant difference in performance between the 2D segmentation algorithms and that the 3D method can be an added value to the detection of corrosion.
Keywords: confocal laser scanning microscope; corrosion; image segmentation.