Abstract: Image processing method is commonly used in analyzing the experimental data obtained from dye tracer experiments. The authors contrasted the image processing method with a conventional sampling method to monitor the precision and plume accuracy in using brilliant blue as the tracer. We quantitatively calculated the mass storage in the sand boxes by the Matlab programs. The results showed that the monitoring precision and the plume accuracy raised by one order of magnitude and about 3% respectively when we used the image processing method,and the plume accuracy raised by 17% under the heterogeneous conditions set by the experiment. The storage mass was almost the same as the one using the Matlab program. When the grid number was 13.69 million, the minimum error was 0.5%. Generally, the image processing method provides a high-accuracy and high-resolution way to acquire and dispose the picture to describe the migration process in the heterogeneous media more subtly.

Key words: image processing method, monitoring precision, plume accuracy, mass calculation