Estimation of grain size curve of surface coarse sediments using imaging system designed

Sediment recognition is one of the basic topics in coastal and river engineering. One of the parameters of sediment identification is their grain size. To determine the grain size, traditional methods such as sieving the sediments are usually used, which is accurate but time consuming. Image processing provides the ability to isolate and track targets (sediment grains) in images using the smallest unit of a digital image (pixel). In this paper, a one-piece system for imaging coarse-grained field sediments and presenting a granulation curve is constructed and tested, in which sediment processing and analysis is performed with ImageJ software and the results are compared by sieving method and was validated. Image samples were taken from laboratory and natural sand and sand sediments. The results show that the distribution obtained from the images of coarse (larger than one millimeter) and uniform surface sediments has a good correlation with the distribution obtained from the sieve analysis and reduces the time to at least one tenth and the total cost.