Effects of Grain Morphology on Some Engineering Properties of Sands

Abstract

newline newlineABSTRACT newlineStudy of sand crushing is an interdisciplinary research integrating several newlinefields like civil and construction, mining, applied mechanics and field sedimentology. newlineIn relation to civil engineering, particle crushing might occur due to extremely high newlinestresses such as in the cases of pile driving through sand stratum, construction of high newlineearthen fill dams or laying foundations of offshore gravity structures. On the other newlinehand, breakage of angular and sub-angular particles from its corners may takes place newlineat medium and low stresses like in the case of preparation for highway subgrades. In newlineaddition, particle crushing might play an important role in hydraulic fracturing, a newlinemethod used for shale gas extraction. The grain crushing, in turn, affects the important newlineengineering properties of sands i.e., angle of internal friction and permeability. With newlinethis in view, some researchers have made efforts to quantify the particle breakage in newlinesands. Applied stress, roundness, sphericity, grain size distribution, initial void ratio newlineand mineralogical composition are reported as the important parameters deciding the newlinecrushing characteristics of sands. However, different researchers have considered newlinedifferent sets of these parameters while ignoring the remaining ones. Moreover, newlineconflicting statements are found in literature and hence more research is required to newlinearrive at some solid conclusions. newlineKeeping this in view, efforts have been made in the present work to correlate newlinethe various properties of sands to its crushing characteristics. For this purpose, six newlinedifferent river sands were collected and characterized for their physical, newlinemorphological and mineralogical properties in laboratory. These parameters were newlinerelated to the crushing characteristics of sands. Then, variation of the angle of internal newlinefriction and permeability in relation to grain crushing at different stages of loadings newlinevarying from 0 to 30MPa has been studied. Based on the results obtained, empirical newlinerelationships have be