Quantitative microstructure characteristics of landslide soil affected by Three Gorges Reservoir with using ERDAS

The study on soil microstructure has transferred from qualitative description to quantitative analysis as the improvement of image processing technology. However, it is difficult that how to apply the quantitative technology to solve practical problems. We used ERDAS to quantify microstructure images of landslide soil in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, and then analyzed the variations of diameter and distribution dimension of particle and those of pore during the unsaturated and 1 to 3 water-saturated processes. Using ERDAS to quantify the 1500 times magnification microstructure image after the treatment of threshold value of 120, is effective for the analysis of impacts of fluctuated water level on the landslide soil structure. With the increase of water-saturated process, the average particle diameters increased from 0.2um to 0.33um while there were few changes of the average pore diameters, at the same time, the distribution dimensions of particles and pores became smaller.