Smartphone Digital Image Processing Method for Sand Particle Size Analysis

Abstract

The grain size distribution of sand provides crucial information for understanding coastal erosion and sediment deposition. The commonly used sieve analysis for grain size distribution analysis has limitations such as time-consuming processes and the inability to obtain information about individual particle shapes and colors. In this study, we propose a grain size distribution analysis method using smartphone digital images, which is simpler and more efficient than the sieve analysis method. During the image analysis process, we effectively detect particles from relatively low-resolution smartphone digital images by extracting particle boundaries through image gradient calculation. Using samples collected from four beaches in Gyeongsangbuk-do, we compare and validate the proposed boundary extraction image analysis method with the analysis method that does not extract boundaries, against sieve analysis results. The proposed method shows an average error rate of 8.21% at <i>D</i><sub>50</sub>, exhibiting a 65% lower error compared to the method without boundary extraction. Therefore, grain size distribution analysis using smartphone digital images is convenient, efficient, and demonstrated accuracy comparable to sieve analysis.