SHape Analyser for Particle Engineering (SHAPE): Seamless characterisation and simplification of particle morphology from imaging data

Abstract

The mechanical and rheological behaviour of particulate and granular assemblies is significantly influenced by the shape of their individual particles. We present a code that implements shape characterisation of three-dimensional particles in an automated and rigorous manner, allowing for the processing of samples composed of thousands of irregular particles within affordable time runs. The input particle geometries can be provided in one of the following forms: segmented labelled images, three-dimensional surface meshes, tetrahedral meshes or point-clouds. These can be complemented with surface texture profiles. Shape characterisation is implemented for three key aspects of shape, namely surface roughness, roundness and form. Also, simplified particle shapes are generated by the code which can be used in numerical simulations to characterise the mechanical behaviour of particulate assemblies, using numerical approaches such as the Discrete Element method and Molecular Dynamics. Combining these two features in one automated framework, the code allows not only to characterise the original granular material but also to monitor how its morphological characteristics change as the shape of the particles is simplified according to the chosen fidelity level for the application of interest. Program summaryProgram Title: SHAPE: SHape Analyser for Particle EngineeringCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/7h3n5rxtf4.1Developer's respository link:https://github.com/vsangelidakis/SHAPELicensing provisions: GPLv3Programming language: MatlabNature of problem: Automatic morphological description of three-dimensional particles for material characterisation and generation of simplified particle geometries to be used in numerical simulations of their mechanical behaviour.Solution method: SHAPE [1] analyses the morphology of particles using a range of different morphological descriptors, characterising the form, roundness and roughness of each particle. An object-oriented structure is put in place to ensure a robust handling of the morphological characteristics. The simplified particle geometries are exported in a variety of different formats, supporting some of the most popular Finite Element and Discrete Element codes.