Publication Date

Spring 4-2023

School

School of Engineering and Computational Sciences

Keywords

geotechnical, soils, engineering, civil, image processing

Disciplines

Civil and Environmental Engineering | Geotechnical Engineering

Abstract

Whenever someone digs a hole in the ground or takes a relaxing walk on the beach, they directly interact with the soil. In its basic form, soil consists of solid, water, and air phases. Unlike water and metals, soil is a particulate media, and the relative proportion of the individual phases significantly influences its physical properties. Various studies have analyzed soil using image processing to determine its morphological properties. Research involving the digital processing of X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) images of soil to retrieve physically meaningful information is gaining recognition. This study investigates two-dimensional X-ray CT images of unsaturated granular media taken at specific locations on the wetting and drying curves of the soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) determined for the granular media. The images are segmented into three distinct phases of the media through image histogram-based thresholding. The porosity, void ratio, and degree of saturation are evaluated by counting the appropriate pixels for each phase and applying calibrations between pixels and physical dimensions.

Comments

If you found my thesis, congratulations! You are about to be taken on a journey through the world of geotechnical engineering and image processing. This is but a piece of the greater research done by many skilled engineers throughout the vast expanse of time.

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