SEMINAR ON

SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF COARSEGRAINED

SOIL BY SEDIMAGING
By
SUDARSHAN BAROLE
15CE64R07
Guide
DR. DEBASIS ROY
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
KHARAGPUR

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION
Most fundamental property of coarse grained soil
It is useful to predict the range of engineering properties like void ratio

,unit weight , angle of internal friction , hydraulic conductivity etc of soil.

Commonly use to decide the acceptance criteria for fills, soil filter and
paving material.
It is also useful to give idea about the suitability and selection of ground
modifications methods such as grouting , vibratory densification , ground
freezing and electro osmosis.

1.2 TRADITIONAL METHOD FOR PARTICLE-SIZE DISTRIBUTION

OF COARSE GRAINED SOIL

By performing sieve analysis of soil.

Set of sequentially arranged sieve one over the

other in vertical plane such that the sieve having

maximum aperture at the top and minimum size of
aperture at bottom

1.3 Apparatus for performing sieving test on

soil

Set of sieves

Sieve shaker

1.4 DISADVANTAGES OF SIEVE ANALYSIS

It is time consuming as running sieve shaker

and weighing each sieve take a lot of time.

Clogging of opening of sieve after use.
Costly to purchase, use and maintain sieve,
sieve shaker and scales.
It is noisy and also introduce airborne
particulates in to the laboratory.

2. SEDIMAGING
2.1 Introduction
The term sedimaging can be simplify as sediment plus imaging.
A new method recently develop to determine the particle size

distribution of coarse grain soil.

This method is practically implemented by Hyon-shok Ohm and
Roman D. Hryciw
it gives the particle size distribution for particles between
0.075mm and 2.0 mm
This test also help to determine the percentage finer than .
075mm

2.2 Background
The sedimaging test is based on imaging techniques.
Now a day imaging techniques have been widely adopted in

many fields like medical , aerospace , defense and national

security etc.
For example in medical diagnosis, tools like magnetic
resonance imaging(MRI) and computed tomography(CT)
scan
For security images of facial features, fingerprints, hand
geometries and irises to identify a person.

By using this technique , a test named as tilting backlit

translucent segregation table(TST) for obtaining the size
distribution of particle in the 40mm to 2mm range is
developed

2.3 EARLY ATTEMPS TOWARD SEDIMAGING

In 2004 shin and Hryciw developed an image processing

technique based on wavelet transformation.

But due to absence of high resolution camera and
laboratory testing system at that time, the above concept
was only a theoretical concept
Ohm and hryciw then tracked the development of camera
technology until 20-40 megapixel camera became available
in early 2010.

2.4 SEDIMAGING HARDWARE

The sedimaging system for sizing particles in the 2.0 mm

to .075mm rage consists of following components

1.
sedimentation column
2. Sediment accumulator
3. Pre segregation tube
4. Support tower and base
5. Positioning system
6. Connector and drainage system
7.
DSLR Camera
8. computer

2.4.1

Sedimentatio
n column

Sediment
accumulator

Pre segregation
tube

2.4.1 description about components

sedimentation tank is 7 feet long made of aluminium and

having square cross section with 2in x 2in inside dimensions
Sediment accumulator is 22 in long with glass window and at
attaches to the bottom of sedimentation column.
18 in pre-segregator tube acts as both a particle pre
segregator and a release medium to introduce the specimen
into water fill column.
16.2 megapixel Nikon D7000 camera with an AF-S Micro
nikkor 60mm lens is used

2.5 TEST PROCEDURE

About 450 g of soil sample

is placed in pre segregator

which is initially half filled
with water. then water is
added so as to full it about
90% capacity

A rubber balloon is
stretched over open end
of pre-segregator

 In order to create

slightly vacuum
inside presegregator,
membrane is pushed
into the tube with
allowing air to
escape.

Pre-segregator with water

aid soil is shaken until the
particles are well mixed

 After mixing tube is placed

vertical with rubber

membrane on the bottom.
Coarse fraction of soil is
allowed to settle at bottom

After setting of particles the

rubber membrane is removed .
Here the vacuum keeps the
particles from flowing out.

 The pre-segregator is placed on

the top of sedimentation column

which is filled with water.
And the vacuum is released by
removing the small cap attached
at the base of per-segregation
tube.
Due to above step, soil from presegregator
releases into the
sedimentation column.
Soil is
allowed to accumulate at the
bottom sediment accumulator.
After settling of coarse particle at
bottom, the water with fines is
removed by using valve and
drainage connection.

Sedimentation with time

After removing water,

image of sediment at
bottom of sediment
accumulator is taken.
camera and lens are
pre-set to take image at
an scale of 37-38 pixel
per millimeter
Camera is operated by
computer and then after
ward a computer based
program analysis the
image and gives the
output.

Theoretical concept

Pixel- It is the smallest controllable element of a picture

represented on the screen.

Pixels per diameter(PPD)- It is the most important and useful in
sedimaging. It is define as average number of pixel per particle
diameter.

 Grey scale -The intensity of a pixel is expressed within a given range

between a minimum and a maximum, inclusive. This range is

represented in an abstract way as a range from 0 (total absence, black)
and 1 (total presence, white), with any fractional values in between.
This notation is used in academic papers .

Wavelet Transformation

In sedimaging wavelet transformation is used for

image processing and to determine it particle size
distribution.
The sedimaging program performs all the wavelet
operation s in the background with no user input
require.
Wavelet transformation decompose a image of 2 x
2 pixel size image into i decomposition level and
calculate energy correspond to each level.
Energy is the measure of the magnitude of the
difference between average gray scale of

Seven levels of downscaling beginning with a 128 x 128 image at

PPD=13.2

 Figure shows the

resultant energies by
decomposition level of
soil
It is noted that the
energy is always
highest at the
decomposition level at
which the areas of
approximation are
closest to the particle
size.

Important point based on above concepts

Ohm and Hryciw showed

that as the PPD increase,

the concentration of
energy shifts to higher
energy level.
Wavelet index The
centroid of area beneath a
normalize energy line with
respect to vertical axis
They gave the relation
between PPD and CA
based on experiments on
pre-seived soil

 They produced the

calibration curve as shown.

The relationship between
CA and PPD is given as

Where A= 5.1 for saturated

soil behind a glass
window(A=5.9 for dry soil)

 Once you determine CA for a portion, you can easily determine

the PPD by using equation.

The actual grain size can be computed as

Where D- diameter of soil particle (mm) and M = camera

magnification(pixels/mm)

 Fig showing particle

sorted by size
This image is analyzed
incrementally with height
to produce the particle
size distribution
colourful squares
represent area under
analysis(128x128 pixels).
It gives about 5500
values of D from a 4520
x 1280 pixel image

Software for analyzing image was coded using MATLAB R2013a

Random values of D(only 20%

of total value obtained

After sorting all the data

points by particle size, final
particle size distribution

Comparison of sedimaging to
sieving results
In order to compare sedimaging with sieving,

test were performed on nine different soils;

Same soil samples were used for both tests to
eliminate any randomness.
Next few slides gives details about two test
results.

Fig. 8. Sample soil images: (a) 2NS; (b) Capitola; (c) Class IIA;
(d) Costa Rica; (e) Griffin; (f) Rincon; (g) Scotts Valley; (h) Upper
Peninsula; (i) Oakland Co.

Soil description and comparison between sieve and sedimaging results

of different soil

Comparison of particle size distribution curve

Comparison between sedimaging and sieving: (a) D85; (b) D60;

(c) D50; (d) D30; (e) D10; (f) Cu