Abstract
X-ray tomography has been applied for the estimation of iron ore sinter porosity. Procedures to distinguish open and closed pores and to estimate the volume and the equivalent diameter of each pore were developed, providing the possibility to calculate the amount of porosity considering open and closed pores separately. The effect of the sinter mixture composition on the porosity parameters was investigated, and a comparison with a mercury intrusion measurement is also presented. Reducibility tests were performed for the samples, the porosity of which had been previously identified by tomography. The fact that samples with a premeasured porosity could be analysed with other characterisation methods opens new possibilities to understand the effect of the porosity on the properties of the sinter.