Internal Deformation Measurement and Force Chain Characterization of Mason Sand under Confined Compression using Incremental Digital Volume Correlation

The mechanical behavior of granular materials such as sand is not well understood due to its complex solid/fluid-like behavior. In this paper, Mason sand was investigated to determine the grain-level Young's modulus and hardness by nanoindentation, and the mesoscale behavior through X-ray tomography of a sample in compression. Mason sand specimen was confined in a polycarbonate tube and compressed in the axial direction at ten axial compressive strains up to -21.8 % while its microstructures were observed. The mesoscale deformations were determined by incremental digital volume correlation of reconstructed volumetric images. A procedure for characterization of internal force chains is developed. The minor principal strains and their principal directions were obtained and used to determine the formation and evolution of force chains.