Size distribution measurement of coal fragments using digital imaging processing

This paper focuses on the size distribution measurement of coal fragments by digital imaging processing. The fast and precise measurement of coal fragments, which is important to understand the crack propagation and energy dissipation process of coal failure, has not been achieved by previous research. In this paper, an image analysis method using MATLAB is proposed to measure fragment size distribution of coal fragments. The acquisition setup, analysis step and coding process for fragment size distribution measurement by digital imaging processing are introduced in detail. The statistical size distribution of coal fragments measured by image processing is compared with the theoretical distribution function and manual sieving results. This paper provides an innovative and efficient method for size distribution measurement in the study of coal failure process.