Application of Watershed-based

Algorithm for Fragmentation

in Rock Blasting
Dr. Debashish Chakravarty
Assistant Professor, Department of Mining Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India

Swapan Kumar Khatua

Master of Science Student and Junior Project Assistant Department of Mining Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India

Abstract
The field of rock blasting and analysis of the fragments has always been an area of great interest to the mining
engineers. Aided by the advent of new technologies like digital image processing, and while drill-parameter
measurement with monitoring systems, it is now possible to combine the different facets of mining into one entity that
leads to overall optimisation. The traditional view of separating the mining process into various unit-operations such as
drilling, blasting and comminution; and ultimately transportation into independent unit operations with equal weight to
all the unit operations does not any longer hold good. Now it is being increasingly realised that processes such as
blasting can have tremendous impact on processes such as crushing and grinding which come after blasting. The
places where the present study can be applied are to determine crusher performance, design a better blast model
and investigate the effect of explosive energy on rock fragments during primary crushing; and the overall study can
be used to determine the cost effectiveness of the total process. The various rock properties such as strength, nature
of deformation, size distribution and fragment shape have great effect on the performance of the primary crusher.
Using drill parameters such as SE and digital image analysis data in blasting models may lead to more accurate
results.
Shape and size determination of fragment rocks are increasingly becoming important issues in the mining,
comminution, materials handling, and construction industries. And size distribution of rock fragments obtained from
blasting and crushing in the mining industry has to be monitored for optimal control of a variety of processes before
reaching the final grinding, milling and the froth flotation processes. Whenever feasible, mechanical sieving is the
routine procedure to determine the cumulative rock weight distribution. This process is tedious and very time
consuming. The present work is related to segmentation of the fragment rocks using different watershed based
algorithms and also their comparisons. We also compare the fragment rock size distributions obtained from computer
based technique with mechanical sieving results. All the process has been implemented in laboratory scale using
256X256 gray level rock images and high level programming language.
Keywords: Image Segmentation and Thresholding, Morphological Image Processing, Rock Fragmentation, Particle
Size Distribution.

1. INTRODUCTION These include the advancement of modern instrumentation

Blasting induced rock fragmentation is an art that has
been developed and refined for hundreds of years through
blasting and recording the results. Good blasting
fragmentation practices were thus developed through
experience. However, this method requires a history that is
typically developed in a mine over a number of years and
sometimes at considerable expense. Quantification of
fragmentation as a function of rock mass characteristics
and blast design is attractive. Developments towards this
end have included semi-empirical methods as well as
computer codes that explicitly treat shock wave
transmission and the subsequent rock breakage. This
paper will present predictions of fragmentation resulting
from rock blasting using a new state-of-art technique and
the computer code that analyses the digital images taken
from the laboratory scale.
Rock fragmentation is considered the most important
aspect of production blasting because of its direct effects
on the costs of drilling and blasting and on the economics
of the subsequent operations of loading, hauling, and
crushing, i.e., material handling. Over the past two or three
decades, significant progress has been made in the
development of new technologies for blasting applications.
for monitoring, increasingly sophisticated computer models
for blast design and blast performance prediction and
more versatile explosives and initiation systems. The first
problem one faces when dealing with rock fragmentation
by blasting is how to define it. There are various
approaches for the determination of rock fragmentation.
The size distribution of a blasted bench could be defined
by screening, but this is not practical as it would be far too
expensive and too much time consuming. Therefore,
numerous methods for the estimation of the size distribution
of rock fragments have been developed. Because rock
fragmentation depends on many variables such as rock
properties, site geology, in situ fracturing, moisture content
and blasting parameters (both the geometry as well as the
explosive characteristics with the initiation pattern), there is
no complete theoretical solution for the prediction of blast
size distribution. However, useful empirical models are
used to estimate the size distribution. The most commonly
used are the Kuz-Ram model and the Rosin-Rammler
model. Using the machine vision concept a window based
computer program may be utilised to estimate the size
distributions of the rock fragments easily. The results of the
distribution can be used as a feedback for the next stages
of planning so that the powder factor may be optimised. It

Fragblast-8 Santiago Chile, May 2006 85

is seen that by increasing the awareness and knowledge of
the effects of rock fragmentation by blasting on the mining
operation and corresponding costs, the economics of an
open pit can be improved.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Although the digital size determination of blasted material
may see a simple exercise, there are a number of technical
issues that need to be resolved to optimise the
performance of the system.
The dissertation has investigated the applicability of the
various approaches of both image analyses techniques
and the definition of the digital textures, in terms of laying
the foundation stone for applicability of the digital textures
towards rock image classification. The work has used the
new and novel techniques in the allied applied fields for
solving the problems in the field of rock mechanics, aided
by the analysis of digital images.
The research has made the following major and active
contributions, which taken together would definitely allow
the theoreticians, academicians as well as the
professionals progress in the field of problem solving in
rock mechanics.
1. The relevance of the digital image processing
techniques towards estimation of the fragmentation
determination problem has been investigated, thus this
would aid the process of blast design at both the
management and the operator levels.
2. A new method of analysing the digital images, namely
the a priori knowledge based technique, has been found
to be performing well for complex images of rock
fragments.
3. The use of the neural network (NN) technique not only for
rock property prediction but also for rock image
classification would find its applicability to both, the field
engineers, as well as the academicians [15].
Rock sizing and shape determinations are increasingly
becoming important issues in the mining, comminution,
handling industries, and in various construction industries
utilising graded stone products [15]. These factors affect
the performance of stone products and have considerable
contribution to the cost also, and thus need to be
optimized. In order to be optimized, they need to be
measured in an efficient and cost effective manner. The
timing constraint is also very important in present day
scenario. In the last few years, there has been a
proliferation of opto-physics based measurement systems
to determine the size distributions [4]. One of the earliest of
these systems, originally developed at the University of
Waterloo [5] [6], is now marketed under the trade name
WipFrag [7].
Constituent shape distributions are also becoming
increasingly important not only in the performance of rigid
and flexible pavements but also in the industries dealing
with conglomerates. Shape measurements today are
laborious and tedious manual measurements [8], although
it is very rarely practiced. Many image processing systems
including have the capability of measuring particle shapes
on two-dimensional views; however it is clear that three-
dimensional measurements are needed. An image based
method for producing three-dimensional views has been
proposed by Frost and Lai [8].
A watershed-based segmentation approach that uses
multiscale bilateral smoothing in the range direction for pre-
filtering is adopted for the segmentation of rock scenes. But
the resultant segmented images also contain non-rock
watershed regions, which are not desired for measuring
rock sizes. A proximity-based classifier is applied for the
removal of the latter using features that can be divided into
86 Santiago Chile, May 2006
rock shape, edge strength and region intensity
characteristics. Subset feature selection based on
Thorntons seperability index is used to remove redundant
and irrelevant features. They achieved the final
classification rates of 89.91% using a simple k-nearest
neighbor Classifier [9].
Size distribution of rock fragments obtained from blasting
and crushing in the mining industry has to be monitored for
optimal control of a variety of processes before reaching
the final grinding, milling and the froth flotation processes.
Whenever feasible, mechanical sieving is the routine
procedure to determine the cumulative rock weight
distribution on conveyor belts or free falling off the end of
transfer chutes. This process is tedious and very time
consuming, even more so if a complete set of sieving
meshes is used. A computer vision technique is proposed
based on a series of segmentation, filtering and
morphological operations specially designed to determine
rock fragment sizes from digital images. The final step uses
an area-based approach to estimate rock volumes. This
segmentation technique was implemented and results of
cumulative rock volume distributions obtained from this
approach are compared to the mechanical fragment
distributions. The technique yields rock distribution curves,
which represents an alternative to the mechanical sieving
distributions [3].
Automated image analysis is a useful tool in analysing
block size of blast fragmentation. The results of the analysis
however reflect only the size distributions of the blocks in
the actual image or images being used. The surface of
muck piles is normally fairly horizontal, and it is often
difficult to get an orthogonal view. The area of coverage of
a single image should be calculated. If too few fragments
are photographed, the results may by statistically erratic. If
too many fragments are photographed, the image analysis
system may have difficulty in identifying individual blocks
and smaller fragments would be lost because of the spatial
resolution constraints of the system [10].
The problem of determining the true block size
distribution of blast fragmentation is one of measuring, on
the surface of an assemblage of blocks, some two
dimensional size parameters of the individual blocks and
transforming it into a three dimensional block size
distribution. Similar problems exist in the fields of biology,
metallography, and petrography, i.e. to obtain true particle
size distributions of grains or bodies embedded in a three-
dimensional volume from measurements on a two
dimensional section or cut. The size is affected by sampling
error, since there are very coarse blocks, e.g. the presence
of a single coarse block could be over representative, while
the absence of the same block could be under
representative. The another problem is simply missing
fines, as the undersize blocks tend to fall between and
behind the large blocks, or are not resolved by the image
analysis system [11].
Control of crushing and grinding circuits ideally requires
continuous particle size measurements on both in and
outgoing streams. Until recently, size distributions can only
be obtained by screening methods, which are neither cost
effective, frequent enough, nor timely. Input streams are
often composed of large fragments, making screening
prohibitive. The accuracy of this method is low, subject to
several types of measurement errors [12].
More recently, optical sizing technology has been
applied to processing operations such as crushing,
grinding and screening operations. Still some sampling
type errors persist, and matching screening results is still
difficult. At the same time, optical systems have limitations.
They have been proported to suffer from a lack of accuracy,
an inability to measure fines, and other associated errors.
Errors in this context should not be thought of as mistakes
Fragblast-8
but as variability between the measured results and some
true value. Often the true size is taken to be the
screening results, although that may be debatable as well.
These errors come from a variety of sources:
1. Errors related to the method of analysis of the images.
2. Errors related to sample presentation.
3. Errors related to the imaging process.
4. Errors related to the sampling process [13].
will flow down along the steepest slope path until it reaches
a minimum. The whole set of point of the surface whose
steepest slope paths reach a given minimum constitutes
the catchment basin associated with this minimum. The
watersheds are the zones dividing adjacent catchment
basins.

Optical granulometry systems are required to measure

fragments in situ. That is to say, the fragments are in piles
where sorting takes place, where fragments are partially
overlapped, and where fines may not be seen because
they fall in and behind the coarser fragments, or they are
simply too small to be seen. The hidden fines error in
optical systems stems from the fact that, in an image of an
assemblage of rock fragments, the small pieces, especially
in the case of a wide or well-graded distribution, are
typically hidden from view in the image. In a narrow or well-
sorted distribution, this tends not to be a problem. Optical
imaging systems have associated errors with resolving
fines. This is true especially with well-graded distributions,
where the optical systems tend to overestimate the central
tendency of the distribution and underestimate the
variability. These errors are systematic [14].

3. IMAGE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES
3.1. Basic Concept
Assuming that image objects are connected regions of little
grey level variations, one should be able to extract these
regions by using some neighborhood properties. Indeed, a
high grey scale variation between two adjacent pixels may
indicate that these two pixels belong to different objects. This
assumption does not hold directly for textured objects
because grey level variations within a textured object may be
higher than those occurring at the object boundaries.
However, local texture measurements can be performed so
as to obtain similar values for pixels belonging to similar
textures and therefore high variations between two neighbor
pixels belonging to two different textured regions.
In the case of region growing, homogeneous regions are
first located. The growth of these regions is based on
similarity measurements combining spatial and spectral
attributes. It proceeds until all pixels of the image are
assigned to a region. Region boundaries are created when
two growing regions meet.
Edge detection techniques proceed the opposite way. As
the image objects are assumed to show little grey level
variations, their edges are characterized by high grey level
variations in their neighborhood. The task of edge detection is
to enhance and detect these variations. Local grey level
intensity variations are enhanced by a gradient operator. The
gradient image is then used to determine an edge map. A
basic approach consists in thresholding the gradient image
for all values greater than a given threshold level.
Unfortunately, the resulting edges are seldom connected. An
additional processing is then required to obtain closed
contours corresponding to object boundaries.
The morphological approach to image segmentation
combines region growing and edge detection techniques:
it groups the image pixels around the regional minima of the
image and the boundaries of adjacent grouping are
precisely located along the crest lines of the gradient
image. This is achieved by a transformation called the
watershed transformation.
3.2. The watershed transformation
Let us consider the topographic representation of a grey
level tone image. Now, let a drop of water fall on such a
topographic surface. According to the law of gravitation, it
Figure 1: The pixel is hit by a raindrop. The raindrop
follows the steepest path toward a local minimum (upper
diagram). Afterwards, the basin is flooded with water
coming up out of the reached minimum (lower diagram).
Figure 2: The watershed lines and catchment basins.
Before going to the definition of watershed transformation
it is necessary to understand some basic fundamental
concepts.
3.3. Graphs
A graph G = (V, E) consists of a set V of vertices (or
nodes) and a set E VxV of pairs of vertices. In a
(un)directed graph the set E consists of (un)ordered pairs
(v,w). Instead of directed graph we will also write digraph.
An unordered pair (v,w) is called an edge, an ordered pair
(v,w) an arc. If e = (v,w) is an edge (arc), e is said to be
incident with its vertices v and w; conversely, v and w are
called incident with e. We also call v and w neighbors. The
set of vertices, which are neighbors of, v is denoted by
NG(v). A path of length l in a graph G=(V,E) from vertex p
to vertex q is a sequence of vertices (p0, p1,........, pl-1,pl)
A
such that p0=p1,=q, and (pi, pi-1,) E, (0,l). The length
of a path is denoted by length(). A path is called simple
if all its vertices are distinct. If there exists a path from a
vertex p to a vertex q, then we say that q is reachable from
p, denoted as p q.
An undirected graph is connected if every vertex is
reachable from every other vertex. A graph G=(V,E) is
called a subgraph of G=(V,E) if V V, E E, and the
elements of E are incident with vertices from V only. A
connected component of a graph is a maximal connected

Fragblast-8 Santiago Chile, May 2006 87

subgraph of G. The connected components partition the
vertices of G.
In a digraph, a path (p0, p1,........, pl-1,pl) forms a cycle if
p0 = p1 and the path contains at least one edge. If all
vertices of the cycle are distinct, we speak of a simple
cycle. A self-loop is a cycle of length 1. In an undirected
graph, a path (p0, p1,........, pl-1,pl) forms a cycle if p0 = pl
and p1,........, p1 are distinct. A graph with no cycles is
acyclic. A forest is an undirected acyclic graph; a tree is a
connected undirected acyclic graph. A directed acyclic
graph is abbreviated as DAG.
A weighted graph is a triple G=(V,E,w) where w:E is a
weight function defined on the edges. A valued graph is a
triple G=(V,E,f) where f:V is a weight function defined on
the vertices. A level component at level h of a valued graph
is a connected component of the set of nodes v with the
same value f(v)=h. The boundary of a level component P
at level h consists of all p P which have neighbors with
value different from h; the lower boundary of P is the set of
all p P which have neighbors with value smaller than h;
the interior of P consists of all points of P which are not on
the boundary. A descending path is a path along which the
value does not increase. By f(p) we denote the set of all
descending paths starting in a node p and ending in some
node q with f(q)<f(p). A regional minimum (minimum, for
short) at level h is a level component P of which no points
have neighbors with value lower than h, i.e., (p) = for
all p P. A valued graph is called lower complete when
each node which is not in a minimum has a neighboring
node of lower value.
3.4. Digital Grids
A digital grid is a special kind of graph. Usually one
works with the square grid D 2, where the vertices are
called pixels. When D is finite, the size of D is the number
of points in D. The set of pixels D can be endowed with a
graph structure G=(V,E) by taking for V the domain D, and
for E a certain subset of 2 x 2 defining the connectivity.
Usual choices are 4-connectivity, i.e., each point has edges
to its horizontal and vertical neighbors, or 8-connectivity
where a point is connected to its horizontal, vertical and
diagonal neighbors. Connected components of a set of
pixels are defined by applying the definition for graphs.
Distances between neighboring nodes in a digital grid
are introduced by associating a nonnegative weight d(p,q)
to each edge (p,q). In this way a weighted graph is
obtained. The distance d(p,q) between non-neighboring
pixels p and q is defined as the minimum path length
among all paths from p to q (this depends on the graph
structure of the grid, i.e., the connectivity).
3.5. Digital Images
A digital grey scale image is a triple G=(V,E,f), where
(D,E) is a graph (usually a digital grid) and p D is a
function assigning an integer value to each p D. A binary
image f takes only two values; say 1 (foreground) and 0
(background). For p D, f(p) is called the grey value. For
the range of a grey scale image one often takes the set of
integers from 0 to 255. A plateau or flat zone of grey value
is a level component of the image, considered as a valued
graph, i.e., a connected component of pixels of constant
grey value h. The threshold set of f at level h is Th =(p D
f(p) h).
3.6. Geodesic distance
Let A, with = d or = d, and a, b two points in A. The
geodesic distance dA (a,b) between a and b within A is the
minimum path length among all paths within A from to a to b
(in the continuous case, read infimum instead of minimum).
If B is a subset of A, define dA (a,B)=MINbB (dA (a,b)). Let BA
be partitioned in k connected components, Bi, i=1,.....,k. The
88 Santiago Chile, May 2006
geodesic influence zone of the set B within A is defined as izA
A
(Bi) = (p A j (1...k)\(i): dA(p,Bi) <dA(p,Bi)) let B A. The
set IZA(B) is the union of the geodesic influencek zones of the
connected components of B, i.e., IZA(B)=i=1 UizA(Bi). The
complement of the set IZA(B) within A is called the SKIZ
(skeleton by influence zones): SKIZA(B)=A\IZA(B). So the
SKIZ consists of all points which are equidistant (in the sense
of the geodesic distance) to at least two nearest connected
components (for digital grids, there may be no such points).
For a binary image f with domain A, the SKIZ can be defined
by identifying B with the set of foreground pixels.
3.7. Definition of the Watershed transform
Here we introduce the definition of watershed transform,
which may be viewed as a generalisation of the skeleton by
influence zones (SKIZ) to grey value images. We start with
the continuous case, followed by two definitions for the
digital case.
3.7.1. Continuous case
A watershed definition for the continuous case can be
based on distance functions. Depending on the distance
function used one may arrive at different definitions.
Assume that the image f is an element of the space C(D) of
real twice continuously differentiable functions on a
connected domain D with only isolated critical. Then the
topographical distance between points p and q in D is
defined by Tf(p,q)=inf
f(
(s))ds, where the infimum
is over all paths (smooth curves) inside D with (0)=p,
(1)=q. The topographical distance between a point p D
and a set A D is defined as Tf(p,A)=MINaATf(p,a). The path
with shortest Tf -distance between p and q is a path of
steepest slope.
3.7.2. Discrete case
A problem, which arises for digital images, is the
occurrence of plateaus, i.e., regions of constant grey value,
which may extend over large image areas. Such plateaus
form a difficulty when trying to extend the continuous
watershed definition based on topographical distances to
discrete images. This non-local effect is also a major
obstacle for parallel implementation of watershed
algorithms.
In this case the algorithmic definition automatically takes
care of plateaus, because it computes a watershed
transform level by level, where each level constitutes a
binary image for which a SKIZ is computed.
4. PARTICLE SIZE MEASUREMENT
AND DISTRIBUTION
4.1. Particle Shape
Even though we usually assume particles to be spherical
in most our calculations, this is not necessarily true and
Figure 3: Different equivalent spheres from one single
particle.
Fragblast-8
may contribute error in our experimentation and analyses.
The precise shape of the particles used (coal, catalyst,
resin, paint pigment, drug powder etc.) and their dispersion
make most particle size analysis a difficult endeavor to
achieve. Since the only measurement we can easily use to
describe a particle of any shape that has increased or
decreased during processing is the equivalent sphere
concept, we easily fall into the trap assuming that all
particles are spherical in nature.
Sphere is the only shape that can be described by one
number, its diameter (D). If we have any particle of different
shape, we can easily convert the volume or the weight of
the particle into the volume and weight of an equivalent
sphere:
Volume = 4/3 (D/2)2
Weight = 4/3 (D/2)2
D is the diameter of an equivalent sphere. This is called
the equivalent sphere theory. This ensures that we do not
need to describe the actual shape, which can be quite
messy. But, all particles with an equivalent sphere may
have very different shapes when we look under the
microscope. Thus, we need to define what dimension of the
particle we use in calculating the equivalent sphere
4.2. Particle Size Distribution (PSD) and its analysis
The size of particles in a sample can be measured by
visual estimation or by the use of a set of sieves. Their
particle size can be measured individually by optical or
electron microscope analysis. The basic principle of
sieving technique is as follows.
A representative sample of known weight of particles is
passed through a set of sieves of known mesh sizes. The
sieves are arranged in downward decreasing mesh
diameters. The sieves are mechanically vibrated for a fixed
period of time. The weight of particles retained on each
sieve is measured and converted into a percentage of the
total sample. This method is quick and sufficiently accurate
for most purposes. Essentially it measures the maximum
diameter of each particle.
Both graphic and statistical methods of data presentation
have been developed for the interpretation of sieve data.
The percentage of the samples in each class can be shown
graphically in bar chart or histogram. Another method of
graphic display is the cumulative curve or cumulative
arithmetic curve. Cumulative curves are extremely useful
because many sample curves can be plotted on the same
graph and differences in sorting are at once apparent.
Significant percentages of coarse and fine end members
show up as horizontal limbs at the ends of the curve.
Figure 4: Mechanical size measurement (sieving using a
particular mesh size).
Sorting can be expressed by various statistical
methods. The simplest of these is the measurement of
the central tendency of which there are three commonly
used parameters: the median, the mode, and the mean.
The median grain size is that which separates 50% of
the sample from the other; the median is the 50
Fragblast-8 Santiago Chile, May 2006
percentile. The mode is the largest class interval. The
mean is variously defined, but a common formula is the
average of the 25 and 75 percentile. A second aspect
of sieve analysis is its sorting or the measure of degree
of scatter. Sorting is the tendency for all the particles to
belong to one class of grain size. Several formulae
have been used to define this parameter for a sample
of particles.
In summary the main statistical measurements for sieved
samples consist of a measure of central tendency
(including median, mode, and mean); a measure of the
degree of scatter or sorting; kurtosis, the degree of
peakedness; and skewness and the lop-sidedness of the
curve.
4.3. Mathematical Interpretation
The maximum of useful information is revealed when
particle size data can be represented closely by a
mathematical expression; a mathematical function also
allows ready graphical representation and offers maximum
opportunities for interpolation, extrapolation, and
comparison among particle systems. Furthermore, still
more useful information can be revealed if the parameters
of the function can be related to properties of the particle
system or process that produced it. This would allow for
closer process and product control and tighter product
specifications and quality assurance.
Various two parameters mathematical models and
expressions have been developed, ranging from the well-
established normal and log-normal distributions to the Kuz-
Ram, Rosin-Rammler (Rosin and Rammler, 1933, [18]) and
the Gates-Gaudin-Schumann (Gates, 1915; Schumann,
1940) models. But, Gates-Gaudin-Schumann application
has been limited due to their greater mathematical
complexity.
We shall focus mainly on the Rosin-Rammler distribution
function described by Djamarani and Clark (1997). It has
long been used to describe the particle size distribution of
powders of various types and sizes. The function is
particularly suited to representing particles generated by
grinding, milling and crushing operations. The Rosin-
Rammler function is represented by two parameters: mean
particle size (Dm) and n value (width of distribution) and a
goodness-of-fit factor:
R is the retained weight fraction (%), D is the particle size
(mm), Dm is the mean particle size (mm), and n is a
measure of the spread of particle sizes. The applicability of
the Rosin-Rammler distribution function can be determined
by curve fitting the actual sieve size data of particles of a
sample. A least square regression analysis can be carried
out to fit the data points and the correlation coefficient can
be used to estimate the goodness of the fit.
The value of n determines the shape of the Rosin-
Rammler curve. High values indicate uniform sizing. Low
Table 1:
The effect of different blasting parameters on n
Serial Parameter n increases as
No the Parameter
1. Burden/hole diameter Decreases
2. Drilling accuracy Increases
3. Charge length/bench height Increases
4. Spacing/burden Increases
89
values on the other hand suggest a wide range of sizes
including both oversize and fines.
It normally desired to have uniform fragmentation so high
values of n are preferred. Experience by Cunningham
(1987) has suggested that:
The normal range of n for blasting fragmentation in
reasonably competent ground is from 0.75 to 1.5, with the
average being around 1.0. More competent rocks have
higher values.
Values of n below 0.75 represent a situation of dust and
boulders which, if it occurs on a wide scale in practice,
indicates that the rock conditions are not conducive to
control of fragmentation through changes in blasting.
Typically this arises when stripping overburden in
weathered ground.
For values below 1 variations in the uniformity index (n)
are more critical to oversize and fines. For n=1.5 and
higher, muckpile texture does not change much, and
errors in judgement are less punitive.
The rock at a given site will tend to break into a particular
shape. These shapes may be loosely termed cubes,
plates or shards. The shape factor has an important
influence on the results of sieving tests, as the mesh used
is generally square, and will retain the majority of
fragments having any dimension greater than the mesh
size.
The following points are necessary to be borne in mind:
Initiation and timing must be arranged so as to
reasonably enhance fragmentation and avoid misfires or
cut-offs.
The explosive should yield energy close to its calculated
Relative Weight Strength.
The joint parameters and homogeneity of the ground
require careful assessment. Fragmentation is often built
into the rock structure, especially when loose joints are
more closely spaced compared to the drilling pattern.
5. PROPOSED ALGORITHM
Figure 5: Flow chart of the proposed algorithm.
5.1. Fragment Size Rocks
Fragment size distribution not only depends on the blast
design but also on the rock mass strength as well as its
discontinuous nature prior to blasting, the later being a
function of the natural discontinuity frequency and
orientation. Post blast fragmentation research has been
largely directed towards developing mathematical models
or equations to forecast fragmentation. Existing empirical
relations from the field of mineral processing are commonly
known as the laws of comminution. A critical element in
90 Santiago Chile, May 2006
fragmentation system optimisation is the development of
practical methods for determining the degree of
fragmentation. By degree of fragmentation one generally
means specifying the average particle size and the
distribution of the particles around that mean. Both direct
and indirect methods are available for determining the
fragmentation. The direct methods include screen
analyses, counting boulders, and measuring the pieces
directly. The indirect methods include crusher monitoring
and the monitoring of secondary breaking/blasting costs.
The most recently, the image processing and analysing
techniques have grained popularity for their accurate and
errorless measurement. The other parameters, like the
degree of obtainable accuracy with respect to the size
range and camera resolution; the effect of digital filters on
fine fragment resolution and characterisation of errors also
need to be considered separately.
5.2. Image Acquisition
There are many ways that images can be acquired in the
field and scaled. For instance, when acquiring image of
muck piles, the angle of the slope relative to the axis of the
camera needs to be considered. There are many ways to
ensure that muck pile images are scaled correctly. We do
not discuss about those. It is also necessary to be
designed to allow scaling for all of the different image
acquisition methods, so that camera calibration factor can
be tested easily.
5.3. Convert to Gray scale image
Before going to the further implementation we have
converted the fragmented rock images to the gray level
rock images (256x256). Actually we have implemented all
the methods in gray level rock images.
5.4. Image Enhancement (filtering) and Thresholding
After converting to the gray level rock images it is
necessary to enhance (filter) the rock images and to
threshold the images using Adaptive thresholding. The
details regarding to these have been explained in [2].
5.5. Convert to binary image
Watershed segmentation can be implemented in the
binary rock images but not in gray level rock images. So it
is necessary to convert the gray level rock images to binary
ones after enhancement and thresholding.
5.6. Different Approaches to Watershed Segmentation
In the watershed based segmentation we have used the
following three methods and compared the algorithms.
5.6.1. Watershed segmentation using Distance transform
A tool commonly used in conjunction with the watershed
transform for segmentation is the distance transform. The
distance transform has been explained in [16]. The
distance transform of a binary image is a relatively simple
concept. It is the distance from every pixel to the nearest
nonzero valued pixel. Figure 6 illustrates the distance
transform. Figure 6(a) shows a small binary image matrix.
Figure 6(b) shows the corresponding distance transform.
Figure 6: (a) Small binary image, (b) Distance transform.
Fragblast-8

(a) At first thresholded the gray level fragment rock image
and convert the thresholded image to the binary ones.
(b) Complement the binary fragment rock image.
(c) Compute the watershed transform of negative of the
distance transform.
(d) Finally, a logical AND of the original binary image and
complement of the binary image, getting after
processed, have been done to complete the
segmentation process.
In this method the oversegmentation is the common
problem and in the next two methods we have tried to
overcome this difficulty.
Figure 7: Watershed segmentation by distance transform;
(a) the original graylevel fragmented rock sample image,
(b) the thresholded binary image, (c) the complement of
(b), (d) the distance transform image, (e) watershed
transform image (from top left to bottom right).
5.6.2. Watershed segmentation using Gradients
The gradient magnitude is used often to preprocess a
gray scale image prior to using the watershed transform for
segmentation. The gradient magnitude image has high
pixel values along object edges, and low pixel values
everywhere else. Ideally, then, the watershed transform
would result in watershed ridge lines along object edges.
(a) To compute the gradient magnitude using either the
linear filtering methods (i.e., gradient operators) or
using a morphological gradient (i.e., dilation, erosion,
opening, closing etc.) of the preprocessed image.
(b) Here to avoid the oversegmentation, use the close-
opening operation to smooth the gradient image before
computing its watershed transform.
In this process some extraneous ridge lines also have in
the processed image and so it is difficult to determine
which catchment basins are actually associated with the
object of interest.
Figure 8: Watershed segmentation by gradients; (a) the
thresholded binary image, (b) internal marker, (c) extended
minima image, (d) watershed transform image (from left to
right).
5.6.3. Marker-controlled watershed segmentation
Direct application of the watershed transform to a
gradient image usually leads to oversegmentation
Fragblast-8 Santiago Chile, May 2006
due to noise and other local irregularities of the
gradient.
An approach used to control oversegmentation is based
on the concept of markers. A marker is a connected
component belonging to an image. We would like to have a
set of internal markers, which are inside each of the objects
of interest, as well as a set of external markers, which are
contained within the background. These markers are then
used to modify. Various methods have been used for
computing the internal and external markers, many of
which involve the linear filtering, nonlinear filtering and
morphological process. Here we have done the following
processes
(a) First compute the watershed transform of the gradient
image, without any other processing.
(b) Compute the location of all regional minima of the
fragment rock image.
(c) Find the set of internal markers and then superimpose
with the original gray level image.
(d) Find the external markers or pixels that we are confident
belong to the background. The approach we follow here
is to mark the background by finding pixels that are
exactly midway between the internal markers.
(e) Given both internal and external markers, we use them
now to modify the gradient image using a procedure
called minima imposition. The minima imposition
technique modifies the gray scale image so that
regional minima occur only in the marked locations.
Other pixel values are pushed up as necessary to
remove all other regional minima.
(f) Compute the Watershed transform of the marker
modified gradient image.
The point is that using markers brings a priori knowledge
to bear on the segmentation problem. Humans often aid
segmentation and higher level tasks in everyday vision by
using a priori knowledge. Thus, the fact that segmentation
by watersheds offers a framework that can make effective
use of a priori knowledge is a significant advantage of the
methods.
Figure 9: Watershed segmentation by marker controlled; (a)
the thresholded binary image, (b) imposed minima image,
(c) internal marker, (d) extended minima image, (e) regional
minima of gradient magnitude, (f) image by distance
transform, (g) modified gradient image, (h) final
segmentation result (image) (from top left to bottom right).
5.7. Particle Size Distribution (PSD)
In Rosin-Rammler equation for calculating the n and Dm
it is necessary the values of some parameters i.e., burden,
hole diameter, spacing, charge length, drilling pattern,
bench height etc. Here whole experimentation has been
done in the laboratory scale and taken the samples already
broken or fragmented. So it is difficult to get all the results
for calculating the value of n and Dm. For our
experimentation we assume the value of n=1.0 and the
value of Dm=30.0. The unit of all parameters is in mm
91
(millimeter). This way, the Rosin-Rammler equation for our
experiments is established as
To calculate the values of R (% fraction retained) we have
used different sizes (D) of fragmented rock samples. In this
case the sizes selected are 5 mm, 10 mm, 20 mm, 30 mm,
40 mm, 50 mm, 75 mm and 100 mm. We have also
calculated the shape of the fragmented rock sample using
digital image processing and compare the result in the size
distribution curves.
5.8. Final Output
Figure 10: Cumulative size distribution of the fragmented
rocks in the image.
In the figure 10 we have plotted the cumulative size
distribution of the fragmented rock in the image. Here the
blue colour has been shown the size distribution by sieving
method and the red one by image processing method. We
have also plotted the orientation of the fragmented rocks in
the image with area of those rocks.
Figure 11: Fragmented rocks size distribution of the image.
5.8.1. Determine size distribution of the fragmented rocks in
the image
We use granulometry to determine the size distribution of
fragmented rocks in the image. Granulometry likens image
objects to rocks whose sizes can be determined by sifting
them through screens of increasing size and collecting
what remains after each pass. Image objects are sifted by
opening the image with a structuring element of increasing
size and counting the remaining object surface area after
each opening. We accomplish these actions with a FOR
loop that consists of the following items:
a counter
image returned by a function with a structuring element
the number of objects after each opening using a
function.
5.8.2. Calculate first derivative
As we have seen, the surface area of remaining objects
decreases as the size of the opening increases. A
significant drop in surface area between two consecutive
openings indicates that the image contains objects of
comparable size to the smaller opening. This is equivalent
to the first derivative of the surface area array, which
92 Santiago Chile, May 2006
contains the size distribution of the fragmented rocks in the
image.
6. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
Image segmentation is one of the challenging fields in
digital image processing. Before going to image
segmentation the pre image processing is most important
task in this area. We have taken the fragmented rock
sample images from the laboratory. So it is necessary to
eliminate the noise and enhance the image to the better
ones. For eliminating the particular noise particular filter
judgement is most important work. For individual noise
frequency spectrum is also different. So we have first find
out the frequency spectrum of the particular image for
knowing the noise pattern and enhancement the image.
Early attempts revealed that the rock segmentation
problem is complex and hence motivated the search for a
new practical approach. Object of similar shape, varying
size that are in contact with each other and randomly
distributed cannot be easily separated with definite
boundaries. The watershed transform embedded in our
computing scheme could be a viable candidate to solve
this kind problem. In watershed transform (segmentation)
three methods are there. We have computing each
method for segmentation of the fragmented rock samples
image and also attention their drawbacks in the
respective manner. According to this the last method i.e.,
marker controlled watershed transform is the best one.
Fragmented rocks travel on the conveyor belts at very
high speed (m/s) and motion artifacts have to be avoided.
The WipFrag fragmentation sizing system, developed
by Maerz and Franklin at the University of Waterloo, has
been used in widespread for several years. WipFrag is
the actual automated standard for estimating rock
fragments using digital image processing technique and
state-of-the-art photo analysis. Editing of images is
avoided the fusion and disintegration. It will be better for
an online sieving monitoring system if we take the digital
images at very high shutter speed at some predefined
times intervals rather than processing in real times. The
watershed segmentation method for image analysis may
be speeded up to generate the desired results within a
fraction of a second.
Further field implementation is much more necessary in
an industrial version. Then the following parameters will be
included:
Illumination and brightness effects from different light
source
Huge amount of muck piles of mixed rock fragment sizes
Bench preparation
Pattern layout
Blast hole drilling
Blast hole loading procedures
Post blast data collection
Poor rock fragmentation
Large amounts of oversize
High ground vibration levels
High air blast levels
High downstream processing.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are highly grateful for the funding by ISIRD,
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India.
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