Application of Digital Image Processing to Determine the Properties of Aggregates and Soil using MATLAB: A Case Study

Abstract

The vital physical characteristics of aggregates used in engineering and for interpretation of the genesis of naturally occurring sediment are shape and size of rocks. The mineralogical and physical composition of the rock is necessary to cater to the interaction within bounded space and soundings. Several image processing programs are available to measure the size and shape of various types of objects. The accuracy and reproducibility of the results of these imaging methods could be bettered. This paper aims to determine the aggregate dimension and volume to space behaviors through image processing tools. This study is extended investigation of the coarse aggregate shape properties such as area, volume, center of gravity (CG), elongation and flakiness index. Also, this paper discuss the development of an easy to use image processing tool to determine the shrinkage of soils due to lack of moisture content either because of natural ways/artificial ways. Two different types of soils including first sample near the SNU lake and second sample near Business Management School at Shiv Nadar University (SNU), India were collected. The samples were oven-dried over a period and shrinkage values were determined by Digital Image Processing (DIP) using MATLAB. The results are compared to wax-water method (manual method) results of shrinkage. The properties found by DIP method are reasonably agreeable for multiple aggregates and minor percentage differences in the soil shrinkage results.