Study on 3D fractal dimension of clayey soil by use of GIS

SEM has been widely used to study the microstructure of clayey soil.Other than quantitative methods,most of them were qualitative methods.A method was presented to determine a fractal dimension associated with microstructure of clayey soil by image-processing techniques and Geographical Information System(GIS) software.Through the method of volume-area,the 3D fractal dimension was computed by use of GIS.This method could simplify the data process and raise the working efficiency.Through comparison between area-volume method and perimeter-area method,it was considered that the former method could reflect the 3D information more than the latter one.