Abstract
We experimentally investigated cohesion of artificially bonded granular materials made of spherical glass beads cemented by solid paraffin bonds. By means of laboratory tests designed and carried out for investigation at different scales, we measured the tensile yield strength for solid bonds both at the inter-particle micro-scale and cemented samples at the meso-scale. A parametric study has been performed by varying some of the granular material properties (bead diameter, paraffin content as well as the dimension of the sample for the meso-scale tensile tests. We finally propose a discusion on: (i) the relationship between the microscopic and macroscopic cohesion forces relying on classical homogenisation laws ; (ii) the potential impact of size effects based on a simple phenomenological model.
Highlights
Characterization of soil cohesion is crucial for the understanding of geomechanical phenomena such as erosion, excavation, or sediment transport [1,2,3,4]
We considered the variation in the coordination number
The present contribution focused on the experimental characterization of artificial cemented granular materials
Summary
Characterization of soil cohesion is crucial for the understanding of geomechanical phenomena such as erosion, excavation, or sediment transport [1,2,3,4]. Recent works dealing with classical problems of flows through an orifice or down an inclined plane, showed how the presence of adhesive inter-particle forces reduces the "flowability" of powders and grains [5]. By measuring inter-particle adhesion using traction tests for both the local grain-scale and the sample meso-scale, we experimentally challenge the classical micro-macro relationship, as originally proposed by Rumpf [12]. In this experimental study, we prepared samples of cohesive granular material with beads of diameters d=1.4, 3, 4, and 7 mm, and paraffin contents equal to xp=0.2, 0.5, 0.7, and 1%. We prepared samples of cohesive granular material with beads of diameters d=1.4, 3, 4, and 7 mm, and paraffin contents equal to xp=0.2, 0.5, 0.7, and 1%. 2.2 Micro-scale tensile tests
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