Effects of non-plastic fines on minimum and maximum void ratios of sand

The behavior of sand is affected by the content of nonplastic fine particles. How and to what degree the fines content affects the minimum and maximum void ratios has been studied in detail. A review is presented of previous theoretical and experimental studies of minimum and maximum void ratios of single spherical grains, packings of spheres of several discrete sizes, as well as optimum grain-size ratios to produce maximum densities. A systematic experimental study is performed of the variation of minimum and maximum void ratios with contents of fines for sands with smoothly varying particle size curves and a large variety of size distributions. It is shown that the fines content plays an important role in determining the sand structure and the consequent minimum and maximum void ratios. It is indicated how the fines content and sand structure affects the compressibility and the static liquefaction potential of the sand.