An Optimal Digital Image Analysis Technique for Measuring Deformation of Granular Soils

To measure the soil deformation, two common techniques of the digital image analysis-Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Digital Image Correlation (DIC)-have been used. To generally apply these techniques to the soils, the accuracy of these techniques should be evaluated under various conditions. In this study, the influence factors including the image resolution, the degree of displacement and deformation, the size of pixel subsets, and analysis techniques were analyzed. The deformation of an idealized particle assembly using the discrete element method was measured by the digital image analyses, and then the results were compared with the actual deformations. To conduct the optimal digital image analysis, various factors are systematically analyzed in terms of the degree of the displacement and the deformation.