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Experimental investigation on the grain-scale compression behavior of loose wet granular material

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Abstract

The behavior of model granular materials (glass beads) wetted by a small quantity of liquid forming capillary bridges is studied by one-dimensional compression test combined with X-ray computed tomography (XRCT) observation. Special attention is paid to obtain very loose initial states (initial void ratio of about 2.30) stabilized by capillary cohesion. XRCT-based analyses involve spherical particle detection adapted to relatively low-resolution images, which enable heterogeneities to be visualized and microstructural information to be collected. This study on an ideal material provides an insight into the macroscopic compression behavior of wet granular materials based on the microstructural change, such as pore distance distribution, coordination number of contacts, coordination number of neighbors and number of contacts per grain.

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Abbreviations

a :

Size of standard volume

b :

Size of extended volume

\( \left\langle d \right\rangle \) :

Average diameter

d min :

Minimum diameter

d max :

Maximum diameter

e 0 :

Initial void ratio

e :

Void ratio

EV:

Extended volume

f(r):

Signature curve

Φ 0 :

Initial solid fraction

g(r):

Radial distribution function

i, j, k :

Voxel indices

iC, jC, kC :

Center position of detected sphere

I(i, j, k):

Intensity at voxel (i, j, k)

∇I(i, j, k):

Gradient vector at voxel (i, j, k)

N :

Number of particles

N C :

Number of pairs in contacts

p(r):

Average number density of particles

q(i, j, k):

Vector from (iC, jC, kC) to voxel (i, j, k)

r :

Radii of particles/radial distance

SV:

Standard volume

Si:

Step of scan (S1, S2, S3, S4)

z :

Total coordination number

z(h):

Coordination number of close neighbors

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Acknowledgements

This work is part of the first author’s PhD thesis funded by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam. The authors are grateful to Dr. Michel Bornert (Laboratoire Navier) for his useful suggestions and Mr. Jean-Marc Plessier (Laboratoire Navier) for the scanning electronic microscopic image of a glass bead.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Navier, UMR 8205, École des Ponts ParisTech, IFSTTAR, CNRS, Université Paris-Est, 6-8 Avenue Blaise Pascal, 77455, Marne-la-Vallée Cedex 2, France

    Vinh-Du Than, Patrick Aimedieu, Jean-Michel Pereira, Jean-Noël Roux & Anh Minh Tang

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Danang, University of Technology and Education, 48 Cao Thang Street, Da Nang City, Vietnam

    Vinh-Du Than

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  1. Vinh-Du Than
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Correspondence to Anh Minh Tang.

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Than, VD., Aimedieu, P., Pereira, JM. et al. Experimental investigation on the grain-scale compression behavior of loose wet granular material. Acta Geotech. 15, 1039–1055 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-019-00856-0

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