A scanning electron microscopy image processing method for quantifying fabric orientation of clay geomaterials

A novel computerized procedure is presented for processing scanning electron (SEM) micrographs of argillaceous geomaterials in order to quantify the clay particle orientation. An index of fabric orientation is extrapolated from the pixels (512×512) with maximum brightness intensity, through an iteration `thinningʹ process. A binary map of lines (vectors) is obtained which allows the determination of the clay particle orientation applying a line-following algorithm. The results are represented by a histogram (direction ranges at intervals of 10°).