A new approach to particle shape quantification using the curvature plot

Abstract Particle shape measurement is an important analysis for a number of research and industrial disciplines. Most of the presently available 2-Dimensional shape analysis methods commonly suffer from at least two shortcomings: (1) particles, which are visually distinct, are not easily distinguished and (2) the parameter value is difficult to relate to physical attributes. This contribution seeks to address these issues by introducing the Curvature (κ) plot which can be used to identify particle corners and measure their sharpness. Using the κ plot, four shape parameters are proposed: number of corners, cumulative angularity, sharpest corner and straight fraction. This methodology is applied to synthetic geometrical shapes and 4000 natural sand particle data. The results demonstrate that the four new shape parameters can be collectively used to quantitatively describe particle shape which correlates closely with visual perceptions of particle boundary.