An alternative method for the particle size distribution: Image processing

Abstract

Granular soils are used in different areas of civil engineering due to their easy accessibility and low cost as a material. The sieve analysis method, which has been conducted in rock physics measurements for many years, has been practicing determining the particle size distributions for those materials. In this study, a method based on image analysis technique has been developed as an alternative to traditional sieve analysis method for determining the particle size distribution in granular soils. This technique based on image processing to determine particle distributions via the experimental setup that consist of a camera, tripod, light box and mechanical shaking apparatus. In order to assess the reliability of this technique, each sample was subjected to traditional sieve analysis and the results of both analysis methods were compared. In conclusion, it was observed that the results obtained with the image processing technique had a minimum 95.22% closeness with the sieve analysis experiment data.