Morphology segmentation algorithm for overlapped bubbles in two-phase flow

In order to automatically find the count and size distribution of particles in two phase flow, a new algorithm is proposed to segment overlapped bubbles image. The algorithm was based on Mathematical Morphology method. First, the bright dots of bubbles were extracted, and then the bright dots were thickened. The unconnected objects would not become 8-connection and the increased pixels would not overstep the boundary of original bubbles during the thicken process. The thicken process was stopped when each bright dot was not thickened anymore, and then the segmentation image was obtained. Experimental results shows that the algorithm can accurately segment the overlapped bubbles in gas-liquid two-phase flow, and then the numbers and sizes of bubbles can be obtained correctly.