Abstract
Flocculants are used widely in sewage disposal plants and wastewater treatment facilities. Most operators would readily agree that there is need for evaluation of flocculation state in their plants. This paper describes a new method of quantitative evaluation of visual patterns in the aggregation of particles. Most studies on the pattern analysis have discussed the quantification of the shape. However, it is considered that patterns are characterized by the shape and aggregation degree of the particles. In this paper, SI(shape index) and AI(aggregation index) are proposed in order to quantify the shape and aggregation degree of the paricles. Many examples would be examined, and experiment for flocculants would be carried out as an application of this study. The results show that SI can quantitatively express the shape of the particle and AI express the degree of aggregation, and it is considered that it is advisable to use SI-AI distribution diagram to evaluate the particle pattern.
