Using Posidonia Oceanica Fibres for the Mechanical Improvement of Sediments

Abstract This study presents the first step of research aiming at investigating the potential use of Posidonia Oceanica (PO) as a natural additive for the mechanical improvement of dredged sediments or soils. Leveraging image analysis methodologies, the correlation between Posidonia needle ball (NB) diameter and fibre length is explored, which is crucial for sediment treatment optimisation. Fibre length estimation utilised imaging analysis, with methods focused on identifying the longest skeleton path in MATLAB © and the maximum length of the bounding ellipse in ImageJ © . Both approaches employed thresholding techniques as image pre-treatment. Results reveal a clear association between ball diameter and fibre length, with skeleton path techniques demonstrating superior precision in fibre length determination. This is important to be able to easily select PO fibres of specific lengths to be added for the mechanical improvement of sediments.