Evaluation of color space information for visualization of contamination plumes

Relating dye concentration and image information is an important consideration in flow studies which employs a tracer to map plumes of contamination. This study employs color space information to increase the data available for analysis than gray scale commonly employed. The objective of this study is to find a color space in which the relationship between transmitted signal and integrated concentration is quantifiable. In particular, the goal was to correlate the spatial concentration of contamination with color pixel information. For this purpose, a new algorithm was used to identify the best concentration for a number of dyes that can be used as tracers. In addition, the ideal color space component for reconstruction of each dye was determined. The effectiveness of this color classification method was assessed using 10,368 color space component images within the framework of peak signal-to-noise ratio for eight different dyes and six color spaces spanning a concentration ranging from 1 to 2,000 ppm, for eight plume lengths.