A New Approach to Determine the Soil Particles Arrangement by the Digital Image Processing

Soil particle arrangement affects soil behavior. Determining the arrangement of soil particles is complex. In this paper, wavelet transformation based on digital image processing was developed to determine the soil particles arrangement. Soil image is decomposed to 512×512 pixels small zones and is analyzed by wavelet transformation. For each analysis zone, an energy index is calculated. Since the energy can be calculated discretely for horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions, more data about the soil particles arrangement such as particles shape, particles orientation, and fabric can be acquired. For this purpose, the energy index is determined by comparing horizontal and vertical energies. Imaging of soils is done by sediment imaging test and flat surface test, and the energy index is calculated and compared for both methods. Energy index values greater than zero indicate that the particles are horizontally arranged, while the energy index values below zero represent the vertical arrangement of the particles. Therefore, the energy index is an appropriate indicator for determining the soil particle arrangement. Determination of particles arrangement by the DIP method reduces the operator and decreases errors.