Abstract
Accurate digital image segmentation is necessary for analyzing the characteristics of fuel spray from various optical measurements. However, some conventional segmentation methods cannot achieve the desired effect for the difficult task with severe noises such as schlieren images under diesel engine-like conditions. In this work, an image processing algorithm named Texture Assessment by Gradient Statistics (TAGS) was proposed for improving the recognition of spray images with noisy backgrounds, which utilizes gradient statistics reflecting texture to distinguish the spray region from the background region. The effects of the key parameters in the proposed algorithm on the segmentation quality were studied. And for validating the applicability and generalization of the proposed algorithm, a series of experiments on diesel evaporating sprays were conducted through high-speed photography of Mie-scattering and double-pass schlieren. It was found that the extraction of gradient statistics can enhance the difference between the spray and the background regions when their gray values are close, which contributes to the image segmentation. For the schlieren images with noisy backgrounds, the signal-to-noise ratio of the TAGS method increased from 1.24 to 9.40 compared with the conventional gray value subtraction thresholding method. The segmentation quality has low dependence on the algorithm parameters of TAGS, and a parameter setting method for its image processing program has been recommended, which enables the analysis of spray characteristics including the macroscopic morphology, the tip penetration and the projected area of liquid/vapor phases.
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Acknowledgements
The research was sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52176168) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 91741130). Many thanks to Dr. Ryan Gehmlich, Sandia National Laboratories and Engine Combustion Network (ECN) for sharing the spray schlieren images (https://ecn.sandia.gov/download-code/).
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YZ contributed to conceptualization, methodology, software, investigation, data curation, writing, original draft preparation; WQ contributed to software, data curation, reviewing; ZW contributed to data curation, validation, writing; YZ: helped in supervision and editing.
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Zhou, Y., Qi, W., Wei, Z. et al. An image segmentation algorithm for fuel spray schlieren images with noisy backgrounds under engine-like conditions. Exp Fluids 63, 89 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-022-03435-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-022-03435-4