A study of micro fiber dispersion using digital image analysis

The area of the digital image processing is getting more attention in the hope that it will increase the accuracy of any scientific measurements, such as in determining an object velocity, temperature, and size. While human vision is excellent to recognize and differentiate objects, it has been proven to be a poor tool when it comes to measure the object performance. One of many digital image processing applications is texture analysis whose purpose is to evaluate image patterns. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the use of texture analysis as a tool to micro fiber dispersion measurement. Micro fiber dispersion can be found in many applications such as in paper and industry powder engineering. Three cases related to micro fiber dispersion were investigated in this study. The first case was the experimental study of the dispersion in open water channel. Sets of synthetic fibers were put into water channel to simulate a process that can be found in papermaking industry. The research investigated the effect of three operating parameters: fluid velocity, fiber consistency, and fiber aspect ratio to fiber dispersion. Using two-factorial experimental design technique, the main and interaction effects of these parameters were evaluated. The study found that increasing fluid velocity, fiber aspect ratio, and consistency decreased the dispersion level. The study also found that the effect of individual parameters is more pronounced than the role of the interactive terms on the fiber flocculation. The second case considered was applying the fiber dispersion analysis to computer-synthesized images consisting of different arrangements of fibers. Four sets of sub-cases were presented. These sub-cases were divided based on the fiber-concentrated location and fiber distribution. The use of computer-synthesized images was found to be very useful to simulate real situation during fiber dispersion. The third case investigated the fiber distribution on a dry paper. Images for different types of paper were taken and evaluated to see the dispersion level of each type of paper. It was found that the current texture analysis was applicable to determine the dispersion level for dry papers.
While three cases indicated that the texture analysis can be used to investigate the fiber dispersion, the texture analysis used here is not a perfect and universal method and may not be suitable to analyze other types of dispersions. The human vision will always be essential to determine if the texture analysis is applicable to any other problem.