3D fracture behavior of sand at the particle level: Experimental versus numerical modeling

Abstract

Many geotechnical engineering applications such as pile driving, blast loading, and others associated with high normal stress projects (e.g., heavy earth dams) may involve the fracture of sand particles, which alters the grain size distribution and morphology of bulk material. Therefore, it is important to understand the fracture behavior of sand. Few studies have focused on conducting compression experiments on individual sand particles (e.g., Nakata et al. 1999, McDowell 2002, Cavarretta et al. 2010, Cil and Alshibli 2012). Recent advances in 3D nondestructive techniques such as SMT (e.g., Cil and Alshibli 2012) and 3D x-ray diffraction (3DXRD, Alshibli el al. 2013) offered excellent opportunities to monitor the deformation and fracture behavior of geomaterials at a resolution as high as 1.8 µm/pixel. SMT is excellent in monitoring particle kinematic behavior and the onset/propagation of failure in granular materials. 3DXRD offers complementary measurements to SMT by measuring particle lattice strain,which can be used to calculate stresses within individual particles. Such valuable experimental measurements provide unique data to calibrate and validate discrete and continuum models to better characterizethe constitutive behavior of granular materials at the particle level.