Computer Vision Analysis of a Melting Interface Problem with Natural Convection - Visual Computing: Scientific Visualization and Imaging Systems - page 226

12.5 Conclusions
The most significant changes and improvements in scientific measurements are
due to the development of measuring methods with higher accuracy results and
lower uncertainties. Most researchers have developed and improved methods and
systems of noncontact measurement, where all steps in the procedure use Com-
puter Vision techniques [ 22 ].
Following this trend, we proposed to evaluate some Computer Vision techniques
to support the experimental analysis of a melting problem with natural convection.
The complete knowledge of experimental results is very important for the under-
standing of the complex phenomenon that involves moving boundary problems.
Systems that can extract information from digital images help in the validation of
numerical and experimental results, and provide a better understanding of the
phenomenon under study. The results of this study can be applied in energy storage
systems and other engineering applications. The experiments consider two water
volumes in the solid and liquid states. The objective is to analyze the behavior of the
moving interface and the evolution of the liquid fraction.
The problem was solved using image segmentation, which is the most studied
topic in image analysis. Considering that there is not a universal method to seg-
ment all images [ 2 ], the aim of this study is unique.
The results using Computer Vision techniques to extract the ice and water
volume obtained during the experimental procedure matched the values obtained
in the numerical modeling. Given the uncertainties of the measurement process
and experimental procedure, the final results are considered very satisfactory.
The segmentation algorithm used gave a better definition for the edges,
reducing the number of incorrect values in the enhancement of the ice-water
interface.
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