Abstract
In order to have a better understanding of the real contact area of granular materials, the white light interference method is applied to explore the real surface morphology of clay soils under high stress. Analysis of the surface profile indicates that there exists a support point height z0 with the highest distribution frequency. A concept of a real contact region (from z0 to z0 + d90; d90 represents the particle size corresponding to 90% of the volume fraction) is proposed by combining a surface profile with the particle size distribution of clay soil. It was found that under the compressive stress of 106 MPa–529 MPa, the actual contact area ratio of clay soil varies between 0.375 and 0.431. This demonstrates an increasing trend with the rise of stress. On the contrary, the apparent porosity decreases with an increasing stress, varying between 0.554 and 0.525. In addition, as the compressive stress increases, the cumulative frequency of apparent profile height (from z0 − d90 to z0 + d90) has a concentrated tendency with a limited value of 0.9.
Highlights
The contact characteristics of granular materials are important for prediction of friction between interfaces in geophysical, geological, petroleum, ocean and geotechnical engineering [1,2,3,4,5,6].Clay particles are widely distributed in the mainland and ocean
Particle size distribution was combined in the location of the actual contact surface
An innovative mesoscopic study on the surface profile of clay soil was conducted in this study by white light interference
Summary
The contact characteristics of granular materials are important for prediction of friction between interfaces in geophysical, geological, petroleum, ocean and geotechnical engineering [1,2,3,4,5,6].Clay particles are widely distributed in the mainland and ocean. The contact characteristics of granular materials are important for prediction of friction between interfaces in geophysical, geological, petroleum, ocean and geotechnical engineering [1,2,3,4,5,6]. In view of the interfacial friction of clay soil, the theory of “adhesion-ploughing” [7] can be used to explain the macroscopic friction force composition with meso-physical quantities. Interpreting friction as a single factor has a one-sided effect and does not work well for the hard-soft interface. Bowden and Tabor [7] proposed the adhesion-ploughing theory to lay the theoretical foundation for modern solid friction. Their theory is based on the joint action of mechanism and molecules. With the continuous improvement of the theory [8,9,10,11], it can be well applied to the hard-soft interface
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