Laboratory Investigation on Particle Breakage Characteristics of Calcareous Sands

Many studies have demonstrated the fragility of calcareous sands even under small stresses. This bears an adverse influence on their engineering properties. A series of laboratory tests were carried out on poor-graded calcareous sands to investigate the crushability mechanism. Einav’s relative breakage and fractal dimension were used as the particle breakage indices. The results show that the particles broke into smaller fragments at the low-stress level by attrition which was caused by friction and slip between particles. In contrast, particles broke in the form of crushing at the relatively higher stresses. The evolution of the particle size was reflected by the variation in Einav’s relative breakage and fractal dimension. As testing commenced, the breakage index rapidly increased. When the stress was increased to 400 kPa, the rate of increase in the breakage index was retarded. As the stress was further increased beyond 800 kPa, the rate of increase in the fractal index became much smaller. This elucidated that the well-graded calcareous sands could resist crushing depending on the range of applied stresses. Based on the test findings, a new breakage law is proposed.

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