Experimental and numerical investigation on size effect on crushing behaviors of single calcareous sand particles

Abstract

Single particle crushing tests were conducted to investigate the size effect on the crushing behaviors of single calcareous sand particles experimentally and numerically. The particle crushing strengths and fragmentation modes of the calcareous sand particles with six different size groups (5–17 mm) were investigated. Moreover, the numerical simulation based on discrete element method was performed to assess the progressive fracture behavior. The particle crushing strength data are found to be satisfy the Weibull’s statistics model well. The Weibull modulus decreases with the increasing particle size. Meanwhile, the scaling law between the characteristic crushing strength and the particle size is smaller than the theoretical predication by the Weibull model. As the particle size increases, the fragmentation mode changes from simultaneous splitting and successive splitting to primary splitting. Furthermore, the numerical results reveal that the fractures occur firstly in the contact area between the loading walls and the top and bottom ends of the particles, eventually forming the penetrative fracture zones along the direction of loading.

Keywords:

• Calcareous sand
• discrete element method
• particle breakage
• particle size effect

Disclosure Statement

We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work, there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript entitled.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51971188 and 51071134), the Science and Technology Major Project of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2019GK1012), Huxiang High-Level Talent Gathering Program of Hunan Province-Innovative team (Grant No. 2019RS1059) and the Degree and Postgraduate Education Reform Project of Hunan Province (Grant No. CX20190493). All these supports are acknowledged.