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Breakage of an artificial crushable material under loading

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Abstract

The mechanical behaviour of granular materials depends on their grading. Crushing of particles under compression or shear modifies the grain size distribution, with a tendency for the percentage of fine material to increase. It follows that the frictional properties of the material and the critical states are modified as a consequence of the changes in grain size distribution and the available range of packing densities. This paper illustrates an extended experimental investigation of the evolution of the grading of an artificial granular material, consisting of crushed expanded clay pellets under different loading conditions. The changes of grading of the material after isotropic, one-dimensional and constant mean effective stress triaxial compression were described using a single parameter based on the ratio of the areas under the current and an ultimate cumulative particle size distribution, which were both assumed to be consistent with self similar grading with varying fractal dimension. Relative breakage was related to the total work input for unit of volume. For poorly graded samples, the observed maximum rate of breakage is practically independent of initial uniformity. Further experiments at higher confining stress are required to investigate the mechanics of breakage of better graded samples.

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Acknowledgments

Part of this research was carried out while the first Author was a post-doc at ETH Zurich. The authors wish to acknowledge Flavio Wanninger, Pascal Zwicker, Jacqueline Leu, Barbara Low, and Annika Zimmermann, who carried out some of the experimental work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for their Semester projects during their Masters studies at ETH Zürich, and the technical support of Ralf Herzog and Gabriele Peschke.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ingeniería del Terreno, Cartográfica y Geofísica, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, C. Jordi Girona 1-3, 08034 , Barcelona, Spain

    Francesca Casini

  2. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ingegneria Informatica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, via del Politecnico 1, 00133 , Rome, Italy

    Giulia M. B. Viggiani

  3. Institute for Geotechnical Engineering (IGT), ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 15, 8093 , Zurich, Switzerland

    Sarah M. Springman

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  1. Francesca Casini
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  2. Giulia M. B. Viggiani
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  3. Sarah M. Springman
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Correspondence to Francesca Casini.

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Casini, F., Viggiani, G.M.B. & Springman, S.M. Breakage of an artificial crushable material under loading. Granular Matter 15, 661–673 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-013-0432-x

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