Analysis of Particle Breakage of a River Sand Under Different Strength Conditions

This paper studies the particle breakage of a quarzitic, natural, river sand when subjected to high pressure isotropic and oedometer tests and large shear deformations in ring shear tests. The particle crushing is studied by the analysis of the size distribution curves of the material once subjected to the tests in different conditions, using the "relative breakage parameter" and the fractal dimension, that are suitable parameters to incorporate on constitutive modeling of crushing particle during loading. Test results have proved that oedometer tests produce more particle crushing than isotropic compression tests, for similar pressures. Besides, the yield point, that indicates the pressure when the particle breakage begins, coincides with the point of maximum curvature in a void ratio-log pressure plot.