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Changes to particle characteristics associated with the compression of sands

Article  in  Géotechnique · June 2011

DOI: 10.1680/geot.9.P.114

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Altuhafi, F. N. & Coop, M. R. (2011). Géotechnique 61, No. 6, 459–471 [doi: 10.1680/geot.9.P.114]
Changes to particle characteristics associated with the compression
of sands
F. N. A LT U H A F I
a n d M . R . C O O P

It is commonly accepted that the onset of particle break-
age in sands during compression marks the start of
yielding. Although particle breakage is strongly asso-
ciated with the tensile strength of a single soil grain,
initial density and initial sample grading have great influ-
ence on the probability of particle breakage. This paper
examines the effect of initial grading and density on the
sample behaviour during one-dimensional compression
for three sands with distinct mineralogies. It was found
that a unique normal compression line is the outcome of
a large amount of breakage in poorly graded samples
and that by changing the initial grading to a better
graded sample a significant reduction in particle break-
age is observed, until for very well-graded samples no
significant particle breakage can be measured. At this
point a difficulty in defining a unique normal compres-
sion line for the sample was found and a transitional
behaviour was identified. In addition to particle size, the
paper examines the changes to some important particle
characteristics such as particle shape and particle surface
roughness in an attempt to relate the soil behaviour to
the nature of the microscopic particle damage during
yielding.
KEYWORDS: microscopy; particle crushing/crushability; sands
INTRODUCTION
The recognition of the role of particle breakage in defining
the constitutive behaviour of granular materials has imposed
major changes to the way in which the macro-scale behav-
iour of these materials is interpreted (e.g. Coop & Lee,
1993; McDowell & Bolton, 1998; Hyodo et al., 2002).
Defining the factors controlling particle breakage during
compression or shearing is therefore a crucial issue to estab-
lish a strong foundation for a constitutive model able to
describe the deformation of sands. Particle breakage is
strongly associated with the tensile strength of the particles
of a single soil, although there are often other factors influ-
encing the probability of particle breakage (Bolton, 1986;
Nakata et al., 1999; McDowell, 2002). A real soil matrix
also consists of grains with different gradings, usually with
different tensile strengths depending on their size, with
smaller grains exhibiting higher strengths than larger ones
(McDowell & Bolton, 1998; Nakata et al., 2001; McDowell,
2002). The packing of soil particles in a granular assembly
is also fundamental in defining the number of contacts for
Manuscript received 16 February 2009; revised manuscript accepted
15 April 2010. Published online ahead of print 17 September 2010.
Discussion on this paper closes on 1 November 2011, for further
details see p. ii.

Geotechnics Section, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Imperial College London, London.
459
Il est généralement reconnu que le début de la rupture
de particules dans le sable, au cours d’une compression,
marque le commencement de la déformation. Bien que la
rupture de particules soit fortement tributaire de la
résistance à la traction d’un grain de sol unique,
la densité initiale et le calibrage initial de l’échantillon
influent dans une grande mesure sur la probabilité d’une
rupture des particules. La présente communication se
penche sur les effets du calibrage et de la densité initiaux
sur le comportement de l’échantillon au cours d’une
compression unidimensionnelle pour trois sables aux
minéralogies distinctes. On a relevé qu’un fort degré de
rupture dans des échantillons mal calibrés donne lieu à
une ligne de compression normale, et qu’en modifiant le
calibrage initial par un échantillon mieux calibré, on
obtient une réduction sensible des ruptures de particules,
jusqu’au point où, pour des échantillons extrêmement
bien calibrés, on ne peut mesurer aucune rupture de
particules significative. On a éprouvé alors une difficulté
dans la définition d’une ligne de compression normale
unique pour l’échantillon, et l’identification du comporte-
ment transitoire. En plus de la granulométrie, la présente
communication examine également les changements sur-
venant dans certaines caractéristiques importantes des
particules, comme la forme des particules et la rugosité
de la surface des particules, pour tenter d’établir un
rapport entre le comportement du sol et la nature de
l’endommagement de particules microscopiques lors de la
déformation.
each particle (coordination number) and thus the force
transferred to each particle through a force chain developed
in the sample during loading (e.g. Muir Wood, 2008). The
particle size distribution is of key importance in defining the
packing and hence the void ratio of the sample. The wider
the particle size range in a single sample, the greater the
packing efficiency, resulting in a higher coordination number
for larger particles and thus lowering the probability of
breakage, as demonstrated by discrete element method
(DEM) studies (Muir Wood, 2006, 2008).
Detailed statistical data presented by Nakata et al. (1999;
2001) investigated the degree of crushing of individual
particles inserted in a silica sand matrix and subjected to
one-dimensional compression. This showed that catastrophic
splitting of particles takes place in a uniformly graded
sample between the yield stress identified from a steepening
of the compression curve in the e–log
v graph and the
point at which the compression index reaches a maximum,
and that 50% of the particles had undergone major splitting
immediately after yielding. However, for a well-graded sand
there was a distinct difference in the crushing behaviour,
with an increase in the breakage of asperities and surface
grinding as the main features of the damage to the larger
particles, whereas particle splitting was more dominant in
the smaller particles.
In this paper, data are presented which highlight particle
damage during the compression of sands. Changes to parti-
460 ALTUHAFI AND COOP
cle size through breakage are investigated for sands with
distinct mineralogies, different initial gradings and different
initial densities to examine the effects of particle packing on
their behaviour. Particle shape changes either due to break-
age or changes to surface roughness are also investigated,
microscopy being used to provide accurate and quantitative
data to give a better idea of the changes taking place at the
particle scale.
EVOLUTION OF PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION DUE
TO BREAKAGE
The progress of particle breakage during the compression
and shearing of granular soils has been investigated by many
authors. It was confirmed at an early stage that particle
breakage was associated with the compression of even the
strongest particles such as silica sands, and is usually
initiated after reaching the yield stress as identified from the
e–log
v9 plot (Coop & Lee, 1993; Hyodo et al., 2002;
McDowell, 2002). Tests on Dog’s Bay carbonate sand, by
Coop & Lee (1993), showed that there were unique and
linear relationships between relative breakage Br , as defined
by Hardin (1985), and the logarithm of mean effective stress
(log p9) for both the isotropic normal compression line
(NCL) and critical state line (CSL). This suggested that a
unique relationship might exist between particle breakage
and effective stress independently of the initial density, and
for the critical states independently of the stress path taken.
DEM studies on crushable materials (Bolton et al., 2008),
showed the evolution of fragmentation of DEM agglomerates
during compression of a uniformly graded sample. The
results showed an initial phase of asperity damage, which is
followed by a grain-splitting phase that coincides with the
material yielding. At high stresses, however, both modes of
grain damage can be expected for all grain sizes.
McDowell & Bolton (1998) showed that the linearity of
the NCL in granular soils is associated with the evolution of
the soil grading and they emphasised the role of the
successive fracture of the smallest particles under increasing
macroscopic stress. Considering a compression test on a
uniformly graded sample, as the stress increases more fines
are created by breakage, resulting in a more efficient pack-
ing and thus a denser sample. Since the larger particles have
higher coordination numbers due to the large number of
neighbouring finer particles, breakage is less likely for them
and so breakage is predominant in the smaller particles with
lower coordination numbers. This effect was found to out-
weigh that of increasing strength with decreasing particle
size (McDowell & Bolton, 1998).
Particle breakage cannot, however, be a never-ending pro-
cess and, at high stresses, a constant grading should eventually
be reached (McDowell & Bolton, 1998; McDowell, 2002).
For many granular materials, it was found that the limiting
grading during compression is a fractal distribution of particle
sizes with a fractal dimension of around 2.5–2.6 (Sammis et
al., 1987; McDowell et al., 1996; McDowell & Bolton, 1998).
This is broadly in agreement with the results presented by
Coop et al. (2004) of ring shear tests on Dog’s Bay sand,
which indicated that also during shearing, at very large
strains, as particle breakage progressed the contact stresses
between the particles were eventually too low to cause any
further breakage and a constant grading was again reached.
Coop et al. showed evidence that the final grading curves may
be different for different stress levels and different initial
gradings, but at higher stress levels there was a tendency
towards a fractal distribution with a fractal dimension of about
2.57. Changing the particle contacts by remoulding the sam-
ple, however, can result in more breakage when further
shearing is applied to the sample.
The effect of the initial grading on the susceptibility to
breakage of particles during shearing and compression has
also been noted by Altuhafi et al. (2006) in their tests on a
subglacial sediment from Iceland. In its natural state the soil
was very well graded and fractal as a result of the intensive
deformation under the glacier. It was found that its behav-
iour during compression did not follow the typical pattern of
having a unique NCL, which is the common feature during
compression of sands, but a transitional behaviour was seen,
with different compression paths for different initial densities
(Altuhafi et al., 2010). When a poorly graded sample of the
same soil was tested the behaviour reverted to a usual sand
behaviour with significant particle breakage and a unique
NCL. This difference of behaviour for different gradings
prompted the more systematic investigation of the effect of
initial grading presented here.
SOILS TESTED
Different types of sands were tested and images of each are
shown in Fig. 1. Leighton Buzzard sand (LBS) is a silica
sand which consists of strong and regular highly spherical
particles. Dog’s Bay sand (DBS) is a biogenic carbonate sand
with fragile particles, mainly composed of broken shell frag-
ments making this sand very crushable. The third soil was a
basaltic sand from the Langjökull glacial sediment (GBS),
which was previously tested by Altuhafi et al. (2006; 2010).
Each sample was subjected to high stresses in one-dimen-
sional compression using two types of oedometer cells: a
38 mm diameter cell with a fixed ring was used in testing
the carbonate sand up to 30 MPa vertical stress and a
20 mm diameter floating ring oedometer was used to reach
very high stresses up to 107 MPa. The use of a floating ring
minimises the effect of boundary friction on the vertical
stress. The initial void ratio of the sample was calculated
from the initial dry weight and initial dimensions of the
sample. The final void ratio was also monitored from the
final water content for those tests which were carried out
under saturated conditions (DBS and GBS). For the tests on
LBS, which were carried out dry to 107 MPa, the samples
had interlocked particles after the test which enabled meas-
uring their final dimensions with a reasonable accuracy. The
final void ratio could then be calculated from the final
weight and final dimensions of the sample. The final void
ratios could then be compared with those calculated from
the initial void ratio and the measured volumetric strain, as
shown in Tables 1–3. Generally it was assumed that a
difference of 0.01 in void ratio was acceptable.
Each soil was prepared for testing by dry sieving to
separate the soil into its constituent particle size ranges.
Samples of different gradings for each type of sand were
then created by mixing soil from each sieve interval in the
proportion required for a specific grading, ensuring that a
homogeneous mixture of all the sizes was achieved in each
sample. The initial particle size distribution was then
checked using the QicPic apparatus, which will be described
in the following section. The initial particle surface rough-
ness before the tests was measured for the silica sand by
selecting 20 particles randomly from each sample, although
the particles needed to be larger than about 300 ìm to be
able to make an accurate measurement. The surface rough-
ness measurement was made over an area of 20 3 20 ìm for
each particle by using the interferometer, which will also be
described below.
THE QICPIC APPARATUS
The QicPic apparatus is a laser image analysis instrument
with a manufacturer’s stated capacity of measuring particle
 CHANGES TO PARTICLE CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPRESSION OF SANDS 461
Table 1. Initial and final void ratio values by different methods
1000 µm of calculations – tests on Dog’s Bay sand. (The first part of the
test ID symbol refers to the initial grading used in the test,
while the extension refers to the test number.)

Test ID Initial e Final e† Final e

D1-26 1.671‡ 0.419 0.417

D1-27 1.896 0.418 0.420
D1-28 1.499 0.404 0.408
D2-23 1.600 0.721 0.722
D2-24 1.267 0.689 0.692
D2-25 0.886 0.684 0.678
D3-4 2.110 0.377 0.441
D3-5 1.852 0.423 0.423
D3-6 2.308 0.440 0.440
D3-7 1.625 0.399 0.406
D3-8 2.071 0.426 0.433
(a)
D3-9 1.859 0.391 0.400
CD-16 2.202 0.448 0.455
CD-17 2.754 0.677 0.682
CD-19 2.088 0.550 0.556
1000 µm CD-20 1.885 0.423 0.424
CD-21 2.781 0.730 0.731
CD-22 2.102 0.591 0.593
D4-10 1.097 0.565 0.569
D4-11 1.143 0.624 0.631
D4-12 0.922 0.473 0.474
D4-13 0.692 0.405 0.413
D4-14 1.362 0.633 0.635
D4-15 0.849 0.427 0.433

Void ratio calculated from final water content of retrieved sample.
† Void ratio calculated from initial void ratio and volumetric strain.
‡ Void ratio after initial loading, this sample experienced high
reduction in e at seating pressure due to its highly loose nature.

Table 2. Initial and final void ratio values by different methods

(b) of calculations – tests on silica sand. (The first part of the test
ID symbol refers to the initial grading used in the test, while
the extension refers to the test number.)

1000 µm Test ID Initial e Final e† Final e

G1-S1 0.770 0.296 0.317

G1-S2 0.622 0.280 0.290
G1-S3 0.587 0.283 0.305
G2-S1 0.490 0.246 0.252
G2-S2 0.365 0.230 0.241
G2-S3 0.395 0.242 0.246
CG-S2 0.858 0.186 –
CG-S4 0.448 0.145 –
CG-S5 0.319 0.210 0.215
CG-S6 0.226 0.170 0.189
CG-S7 0.390 0.198 0.219
OC-S4 0.260 0.218 0.220
OC-S5 0.323 0.247 0.258
OC-S6 0.449 0.256 0.275
OC-S7 0.237 0.237 0.249
(c)

Void ratio calculated from final sample weight and final height of
Fig. 1. Sands used in this study: (a) Dog’s Bay sand (DBS); retrieved sample.
(b) Leighton Buzzard sand (LBS); (c) glacial basalt sand (GBS) † Void ratio calculated from initial void ratio and volumetric strain.

sizes between 1 ìm and 20 mm. It uses dynamic image
analysis by examining a flow of moving particles. This
allows a large sample size to be considered, the particles to
be randomly orientated and the occurrence of overlapping
particles to be reduced. The dispersing unit creates a well-
dispersed flow of particles that falls through the scanning
beam emitted by a pulsed laser. An exposure time of less
than 1 ns ensures that motion blur is not detectable. The
laser and the camera detector can operate up to speeds of
500 frames/s, allowing a very large number of particles to be
considered in a short duration. Two dispersing units were
used with the QicPic depending on particle size. The
GRADIS is a dry gravity feeding system which is used for
particles with sizes between 0.05 and 20 mm and the
LIXELL is a water circulation system which is used mainly
for particles less than 100 ìm in size.
462 ALTUHAFI AND COOP
Table 3. Initial and final void ratio values by different methods
of calculations – tests on basalt. (The first part of the test ID
symbol refers to the initial grading used in the test, while the
extension refers to the test number.)
Test ID Initial e Final e† Final e

BG1-T1 0.982 0.331 0.335
BG1-T2 0.840 0.324 0.319
BG1-T3 0.770 0.311 0.300
BG2-T1 0.641 0.286 0.283
BG2-T2 0.590 0.343 0.313
BG2-T3 0.491 0.299 0.304
BCG-T1 0.663 0.281 0.273
BCG-T2 0.507 0.235 0.228
BCG-T3 0.433 0.194 0.207

Void ratio calculated from final water content of retrieved sample.
† Void ratio calculated from initial void ratio and volumetric strain.
The QicPic apparatus has an accompanying software
known as WINDOX, which controls the settings of the
dispersing unit as well as storing and manipulating the
measurements made. Measurements for each individual par-
ticle can be evaluated from its image, examples of which
are given in Fig. 2, and this enables a comprehensive analy-
sis of size and shape to be made.
There are several particle size definitions available within
the WINDOX software. The first is termed EQPC and is the
diameter of the equivalent circle with the same area as that
of the particle. Several Feret diameters can also be calcu-
lated, but it was found that for most soils the Feret minimum
gives the closest size to a sieve analysis and so this has been
used throughout the current paper. It is the minimum
distance between two parallel lines which touch the particle
on opposite sides in a two-dimensional image. The software
is able to calculate particle size distributions based on
volume or area; the former was chosen here for compatibil-
ity with normal soil mechanics practice of using sieved
weights.
The aspect ratio (AR) in this software is the ratio between
Feret minimum and Feret maximum diameters, while the
sphericity S is calculated as the ratio of the equivalent circle
perimeter, PEQPC , to the real perimeter, Preal. The sphericity
value obtained from the QicPic actually equals the square
root of circularity as defined by the International Standard
ISO/DIS (2006) (ISO, 2006; Cavarretta et al., 2009). Con-
vexity C is also available in the software and it describes the
compactness of a particle as calculated from the ratio of the
projected particle area to the gross area including any re-
entrant sections.
THE INTERFEROMETER
The surface roughness of sands has been studied recently
using some more accurate and complex methods such as
fractal geometry, the fuzzy uncertainty texture spectrum
(Lee et al., 1998), structural three-dimensional approaches
(Hong et al., 1999), SURFASCAN 3D (Content & Ville,
1995) and photometric stereo acquisition with gradient space
domain mapping (Smith, 1999). However, the optical profilo-
metry technique is perhaps the most convenient for surface
analysis. An optical view of the sample is converted to an
elevation map using interferogram processing. From a single
scan the height of each pixel is determined independently
relative to each other with an accuracy of 1 nm in the white
light scanning mode (Fogale, 2005). The output topography
may be presented as an image for which the height at every
individual point is coded on a colour or grey scale as in the
example of Fig. 3. The surface image can also be analysed
for absolute height measurements and roughness.
The vertical resolution is around 1 nm for each pixel, but
the vertical resolution of the image depends also on the Z
step size, which has to be chosen between a few nanometres
to 100 nm. This step size has a direct influence on the
acquisition and calculation times, memory use in the perso-
nal computer (PC) as well as the resolution. In the present
study a step size of 15.7 nm was used, thus limiting the
accuracy of the measurements made in this study to half this
value, to around 8 nm.
A number of statistical parameters are available in the
software (Microsurf 3D). These calculations are either made
on a selected surface or a cut section, which was chosen to
be 20 3 20 ìm for this study. The main parameters for
surface roughness are Sa , which is the arithmetic mean of
the deviation from the mean height value, and Sq , which is
the square root of the arithmetic mean of squared deviation
from the mean height value (Sacerdotti et al., 2000)
X !0:5
Sq ¼ 1=mn Z 2ij (1)
ij
X


Sa ¼ 1=mn
Z ij
(2)
ij
where m and n are the number of points in the x and y
directions, and Z is the deviation at each point from the
mean height value. To avoid either particle size or shape
influencing the values, both Sq and Sa are calculated relative
to a smoothed surface rather than a flat plane. This was
done by the same software and by specifying the size of
shape motifs for the designated areas, which was 5.02 ìm
for the area chosen in this study.
THE INFLUENCE OF GRADING ON THE NCL
The previous literature on one-dimensional compression
tests on uniformly graded samples of silica sand has shown
that for a given void ratio samples with smaller particles
reach yield at higher stresses than those with larger particles
(Nakata et al., 2001; McDowell, 2002), although McDowell
(2002) noted that following yield the compression index was
independent of particle size. However, the uniformity of the
sample has a much more significant effect on the compressi-
bility index of the NCL and the yield point of the material,
as was shown by Coop & Atkinson (1993). To demonstrate
this effect more systematically, three samples of uniformly
graded DBS D1 with an initial mean particle size of 362 ìm
were one-dimensionally compressed to 30 MPa. The results
shown in Fig. 4(a) clearly define a unique NCL for this
grading with higher yield stresses for denser samples. Here
the yield stress is defined as the point of maximum curva-
ture on the e–log
v9 plot. As shown in Figs 5 and 6(a),
similar results were obtained from compression tests to
107 MPa, on uniformly distributed samples of the GBS and
LBS, both of which initially consisted of a single size of
particles between 1 and 2 mm. A unique NCL can be again
identified for both the BG1 and G1 gradings.
From the change in grading after compression for each
sample for the D1 grading of DBS (Fig. 7(a)), it can be seen
that there is more breakage for the sample with the higher
initial void ratio. Contrary to the hypothesis of Coop & Lee
(1993) the amount of breakage is therefore not unique for a
given stress level for a soil that has reached its NCL, but is
dependent also on the initial density of the specimen. This
might be attributed to the differences in coordination number
in these samples. In samples with higher densities the
coordination number would tend to be higher, decreasing the
 EQPC 1419·093 µm EQPC 1176·862 µm EQPC 552·432 µm EQPC 869·659 µm EQPC 533·738 µm
Sphericity 0·909 Sphericity 0·898 S 0·721 S 0·870 S 0·735
Aspect ratio 0·708 Aspect ratio 0·763 AR 0·358 AR 0·830 AR 0·439
Convexity 0·980 Convexity 0·971 C 0·920 C 0·940 C 0·884
Elongation 0·561 Elongation 0·560
EQPC 283·037 µm
EQPC 378·631 µm EQPC 635·509 µm
S 0·719
S 0·866 S 0·822
EQPC 1209·198 µm EQPC 1312·834 µm AR 0·316
AR 0·658 AR 0·584
Sphericity 0·830 Sphericity 0·863 C 0·903
C 0·943 C 0·931
Aspect ratio 0·526 Aspect ratio 0·645
Convexity 0·959 Convexity 0·947 EQPC 1268·014 µm EQPC 472·206 µm EQPC 362·356 µm
Elongation 0·291 Elongation 0·343 S 0·887 S 0·828 S 0·763
AR 0·885 AR 0·551 AR 0·545
C 0·960 C 0·933 C 0·878

EQPC 1218·171 µm EQPC 366·408 µm EQPC 525·138 µm

Sphericity 0·868 EQPC 1393·630 µm S 0·851 S 0·805
Aspect ratio 0·636 Sphericity 0·915 AR 0·614 AR 0·486
Convexity 0·960 Aspect ratio 0·867 EQPC 1243·367 µm C 0·929 C 0·931
Elongation 0·360 Convexity 0·973 S 0·922
Elongation 0·423 AR 0·794 EQPC 376·676 µm
C 0·983 S 0·629
EQPC 474·287 µm
AR 0·269
S 0·707
EQPC 1162·078 µm C 0·825
AR 0·809
Sphericity 0·882
EQPC 100·902 µm C 0·810
Aspect ratio 0·637 EQPC 519·721 µm
Convexity 0·980 Sphericity 0·891 EQPC 770·232 µm
Aspect ratio 0·848 S 0·790
Elongation 0·466 AR 0·555 S 0·774
Image number 7509 Convexity 0·973 AR 0·584
Elongation 0·376 C 0·925
C 0·919

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. Examples of particle shapes from the QicPic output for the LBS compressed to 30 MPa. EQPC is the diameter of the equivalent circle with the same area as
that of the particle. S, AR and C are the sphericity, aspect ratio and convexity respectively: (a) before compression; (b) after one-dimensional compression to 30 MPa
CHANGES TO PARTICLE CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPRESSION OF SANDS
463
464 ALTUHAFI AND COOP
XY: 58·27 µm ⫻ 52·12 µm
X: 7·283 µm/div, Y: 7·283 µm/div
Z: 16·25 µm
Z: 4·062 µm/div
Y shift in the final gradings curves (Fig. 7(b)). However, here
X
Fig. 3. Topographic image of the surface of a LBS particle as
obtained by the interferometer
probability of breakage (McDowell & Bolton, 1998). The
decrease in the inclination of the NCL at the highest
pressures for the uniformly graded sample of DBS (Fig.
4(a)) and LBS (Fig. 6(a)) is similar to that seen by
McDowell & Bolton (1998) and discussed by McDowell
(2005), who related this phenomenon to reaching the com-
minution limit for particles, at which the finest particles no
longer break but deform plastically.
For the LBS and GBS all the gradings analyses were
carried out using both the sieve and Qicpic. In Figs 8–11 a
number of comparisons are shown with sieve data which
show significant differences arising from the different techni-
ques. Apart from these few examples, only the QicPic data
are shown because, although there were differences in the
absolute grading, the sieve data confirmed the conclusions
regarding the quantity of breakage that occurred. The final
grading of a compression test which was performed on
grading G1 to 30 MPa vertical stress (G1–30 MPa) is also
shown in Fig. 9, showing less breakage than the tests which
reached 107 MPa as expected. Unless otherwise indicated
the tests on GBS and LBS were all loaded to a vertical
stress of 107 MPa.
The effect of the initial void ratio on the amount of
breakage is less pronounced for both BGS and LBS. How-
ever, small differences in the final grading can still be
distinguished, indicating that more breakage is still asso-
ciated with samples with higher initial void ratios, as shown
in Figs 8(a) and 9.
Packing efficiency and thus the coordination number can
also be increased by increasing the fines content of the
sample. Changing the grading of DBS to D2 and of GBS
and LBS to BG2 and G2, as shown in Figs 7(a), 8(b) and
10 respectively, significantly reduces the particle breakage as
indicated by the final particle size distributions. Here again
the final gradings for DBS are different, with the looser
samples exhibiting more breakage than the denser ones,
which is again less clear in other soils. It is particularly
interesting to note that the final gradings curves for the
better-graded soil D2 actually lie below those of the uni-
formly graded D1 in the case of DBS, so that as a result of
compression to 30 MPa the gradings curves have actually
crossed. Similarly, it can be seen from Fig. 4(b) that the
NCLs also cross, and that at the final stress it is the initially
better-graded soil that has the higher void ratio and is now
less well-graded than the initially uniform soil. From the
compression curves of these samples in Fig. 4(b), the yield
stresses are clearly higher than for the tests performed on
grading D1, with the looser sample of D2 starting to yield at
about 1200 kPa compared to about 800 kPa for grading D1.
A significant reduction in the inclination of the NCL can
also be seen in all the less uniformly distributed samples
D2, BG2 and G2 for DBS, GBS and LBS respectively, as
can be seen in Figs 4(b), 5 and 6(a).
Changing the initial grading of DBS samples to the next
better-graded one D3 again results in a reduction of break-
age after compression, as indicated by the relatively small
again it can be seen that more particle breakage occurs in
samples with higher initial void ratios. For this grading,
some scatter in the compression curves starts to be observed,
although they still appear to converge at higher stresses.
Again the NCL becomes flatter and the yield points are less
pronounced.
A fractal grading with fractal dimension, D of 2.57 was
then created for DBS, such that the percentage by mass
M(L , d ) of particles finer than size d is given by the
relation
M ð L , d ÞÆd 3 D (3)
This grading is the final grading determined by Coop et al.
(2004) which evolved at very large strains from shearing
DBS of an initial grading 300–425 ìm in the ring shear
apparatus under 650–930 kPa vertical stress. If plotted using
a logarithmic percentage finer scale this grading would plot
as a straight line of gradient 3  D, that is 0.43. On Fig.
7(b) it is labelled CD for ‘critical grading of Dog’s Bay
sand’. In this case the gradings of the samples after com-
pression to 30 MPa were similar to the initial one before
compression, indicating that no significant breakage took
place during loading. The initial gradings curves for CD and
the final ones for tests CD-16 to CD-22 overlie each other.
It has previously been assumed that the NCL of a granular
material is a function of particle breakage and that every
material has a unique NCL, the location of which is
dependent on its grading, among other factors. This raises
an important question, which is whether soils that are
naturally well graded, or those that have reached their
terminal or fractal grading through compression or shearing,
can have a unique NCL because no further breakage is
possible. The answer can be found in Fig. 4(d) which shows
the compression curves for the tests conducted using the
fractal grading CD. They form a set of parallel curves which
do not seem to converge to a unique line even at higher
stresses. The position of each curve is dependent on the
initial density of the sample, an indication of transitional
behaviour, a form of behaviour which has been seen pre-
viously in some residual and gap-graded soils (Martins et
al., 2001; Ferreira & Bica, 2006; Shipton et al., 2006), some
well-graded silts (Nocilla et al., 2006) and recently on well-
graded glacial tills (Altuhafi et al., 2010). A particularly
interesting feature is that even if the compression curves are
flatter at this grading, there is still a large plastic volumetric
strain that occurs, as can be seen from the unloading curves,
and yet there has been no measurable particle breakage.
Since the soil is composed only of non-plastic particles, this
means that although some measurable particle breakage is
commonly associated with plastic volumetric compression in
sands, there is no dependent link between the plastic strains
and breakage. In their as-yet-unpublished work on ring shear
tests on DBS, Ferreira & Coop showed that if a soil that had
reached its terminal grading was reconstituted, additional
breakage would be seen, indicating that the cessation of
breakage is dependent on maintaining the fabric of the soil
as it evolves during the test. This seems to be in contrast to
the result here, where reconstitution of an estimated terminal
grading was found not to result in any breakage on compres-
sion. However, the strains involved in these compression
tests are very much less than the enormous strains of
 CHANGES TO PARTICLE CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPRESSION OF SANDS 465
NCL, Cc ⫽ 0·75 2·0
D1-26
D1-27 D2-23
2·0 D1-28 NCL for D1 D2-24
1·6 D2-25

1·6

Void ratio, e
1·2
Void ratio, e

1·2
0·8
0·8
0·4
Cc ⫽ 0·48
0·4
0
0 10 100 1000 10 000 100 000
Vertical stress: kPa
10 100 1000 10 000 100 000
(b)
Vertical stress: kPa
(a)

D3-4 2·0 CD-16

2·0
NCL for D1 D3-5 CD-17
D3-6 CD-19
1·6 D3-6 1·6 CD-20
D3-7 CD-21
D3-8 CD-22
Cc ⫽ 0·40 D3-9
Void ratio, e
Void ratio, e

1·2 1·2

0·8 NCL for D2 0·8

0·4 0·4

0 0

10 100 1000 10 000 100 000 10 100 1000 10 000 100 000
Vertical stress: kPa Vertical stress: kPa
(c) (d)

2·0
D4-10
D4-11
1·6 D4-12
D4-13
D4-14
Void ratio, e

1·2 D4-15

0·8

0·4

0
10 100 1000 10 000 100 000
Vertical stress: kPa
(e)

Fig. 4. Compression curves for tests on DBS: (a) grading D1; (b) grading D2; (c) grading D3; (d) grading CD; (e) grading D4

thousands of percent required even to see a small change of
grading in the ring shear tests.
The final series of samples of DBS was created with a
higher fractal dimension than the critical grading by adding
more fines to the samples to create D4 with a fractal
dimension at around 2.74 (Fig. 7(b)). This again flattened
the compression curves even more and enhanced the transi-
tional behaviour (Fig. 4(e)). Again the gradings were un-
changed after compression of the samples, and are omitted
from Fig. 7 for clarity. As for the DBS a ‘critical’ or fractal
grading with a fractal dimension of 2.57 was again tested
for GBS and LBS, and these are denoted BCG and CG in
Figs 8(a) and 11 respectively.
The reconstitution method for all the samples tested in
this study was based on sieves, as discussed earlier, since
the samples were reconstituted from the various gradings as
separated by sieving. After reconstitution, part of the sample
was then sieved again to check the accuracy of its grading
before the test. No significant differences were found. In
contrast to what was found for the DBS, the grading results
obtained from the QicPic for samples of both LBS and GBS
showed some divergence from those obtained from the
sieves and the gradings that were chosen to be fractal based
on sieves are therefore not fractal when based on the QicPic
data. The grading OC for the LBS was also reconstituted as
a fractal grading with a dimension of 2.73 and so was even
better graded. Similarly to what was found for the DBS, a
decrease in the NCL gradient and a general increase in yield
stress can be observed as the grading becomes less uniform.
This is again associated with a significant reduction in
466 ALTUHAFI AND COOP
1·0 0·8
NCL BG1 NCL-G1 G1-S1
Basalt G1-S2
BG1-T1 G1-S3
BG1-T2 0·6 ⫹ ⫹ ⫹ G2-S1
BG1-T3 G2-S2
0·8
BG2-T1 ⫹ G2-S3

Void ratio, e
⫹ ⫹ NCL-G2
BG2-T2 ⫹ ⫹
BG2-T3 0·4 ⫹
⫹
NCL BG2 BCG-T1 ⫹
BCG-T2 ⫹
0·6 ⫹
BCG-T3
0·2
Void ratio

0·4 0
0·1 1 10 100 1000
Vertical stress: MPa
(a)
0·2

0·8

0 CG-S1
CG-S2
0·01 0·1 1 10 100 1000 0·6 CG-S4
Vertical stress: MPa CG-S5

Void ratio, e
CG-S6
Fig. 5. Compression curves for tests on GBS samples CG-S7
0·4 NCL-CG

0·2
particle breakage. Again the well-graded soil BCG for GBS
showed no tendency to converge to form a unique NCL,
indicating a clear transitional behaviour (Fig. 5). A unique 0
NCL can still be identified for the CG grading of LBS (Fig. 0·1 1 10 100 1000
6(b)), but there is a noticeable scatter in the compression Vertical stress: MPa
curves, which perhaps indicates the onset of transitional (b)
behaviour which is then evident for the OC grading (Fig.
6(c)). The very well-graded samples of GBS and LBS show
no significant particle breakage, as shown in Figs 8(a) and
11 respectively, although there is a little scatter in the data 0·4
for the CG and OC of LBS gradings.
The QicPic particle shape analyses for the tests on GBS 0·3
and LBS in Figs 8(a) and 9 showed that in both cases
Void ratio, e

particles of the uniformly graded samples BG1 and G1 were

initially highly spherical, highly convex and with aspect
ratios of around 0.8–0.9. The new particles created during
compression of G1 for the LBS are less spherical, less
convex and with lower aspect ratios than the original parti-
cles. Similar results were obtained for the particle shape
analyses for the tests on the uniformly graded samples of
GBS as shown in Fig. 8(a). The decrease in aspect ratio for
this sand is less pronounced than for the LBS, and for the
very finest particles created by breakage the sphericity starts
to increase again. For the uniformly graded sample of LBS
which was compressed to only 30 MPa, the new smaller
particles show a slightly lower sphericity and aspect ratio,
which might be an indication that these shape factors tend
to increase as the compression continues. However, in all
cases the coarser particles remain of similar shape, even
though many of the particles are likely to have been
damaged by breakage, since the gradings curves move
significantly in the coarser fraction. The shape factor data
for below 60 ìm were very scattered and appeared to be
unreliable, so these data have been omitted in the analysis
presented here.
As for the DBS, the breakage after the compression tests
on the better-graded samples BG2 and G2 was significantly
lower than for BG1 and G1 as indicated by the grading
curves shown in Figs 8(b) and 10 respectively. The figures
also show that the finer particles of G2 after the test are
again less spherical with lower aspect ratio than the untested
sample of LBS, but the changes for GBS are less pro-
nounced. Again for both soils the coarser particles remain
substantially unchanged in shape.
0·2
OC-S4
0·1 OC-S5
OC-S6
OC-S7
0
0·1 1 10 100 1000
Vertical stress: MPa
(c)
Fig. 6. One-dimensional compression curves for tests on LBS:
(a) gradings G1 and G2; (b) grading CG; (c) grading OC
Owing to the similarity of results for the CG and OC
gradings of LBS, the particle shape analysis data are pre-
sented only for tests on the CG grading. The analysis in Fig.
11 shows that the larger particles experienced no significant
shape changes similar to what has been found for BCG
grading of GBS (Fig. 8(a)). However, even if there was very
little, if any, breakage evident in the gradings curve, some
small changes were observed for the shape of the fine
fraction of the LBS. For the critical grading BCG of GBS,
however, it seems that there is no clear change in shape.
Because of the highly irregular shape of the DBS particles,
which can be clearly observed from the microscope image
in Fig. 1, the shape and surface roughness analyses were not
undertaken, as the data would be too scattered to be useful.
To give a simple quantitative description for the unifor-
mity of the sample, the relative distribution factor (RD ) has
been used here, which is the ratio between d90 and d10 .
 CHANGES TO PARTICLE CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPRESSION OF SANDS 467
100 0·92
D1 grading

Sphericity
D1–26
80 D1–27 0·88
D1–28
Percentage finer: %

D2 BCG
60 D2–23 0·84
D2–24 0·9
D2–25

Aspect ratio
40
D1 initial
0·7
20 BG1
D2
initial 0·5
0 0·92

Sphericity
1 10 100 1000
Particle size: µm 0·88
(a)
BG1
0·84
100 100
CD BG1-untested
CD-16 BG1-T1
80

Percentage finer: %
CD-17 BG1-T2
80
CD-19 BG1-T3
Percentage finer: %

CD-20 BG1-T1, sieve

60
CD-21 D4 BCG-untested
60
CD-22 BCG-T1
D4 40 BCG-T2
D3 BCG-T3
40 CD D3-4 20
D3-5
D3-6
20 D3-7 0
D3-8
D3-9 1 10 100 1000 10 000
0 Particle size: µm
1 10 100 1000 (a)
Particle size: µm
(b) 0·9
Aspect ratio

Fig. 7. Initial and final gradings for DBS samples which were 0·8
compressed to 30 MPa: (a) gradings D1 and D2; (b) gradings 0·7
D3, CD and D4
0·6
BG2
0·5
Table 4 shows the value of RD for each initial grading of 0·92
DBS compared with both the coefficients of uniformity and 0·90
Sphericity

curvature. The RD value tends to be higher for a well-graded

sample and approaches a value of 1 for a sample which 0·88
consists only of one size of particles. The clear dependency 0·86
of the particle breakage on the uniformity of the initial BG2
grading is highlighted in Fig. 12(a), which shows the 0·84
relationship between the relative breakage defined by Hardin 100
(1985) and illustrated in Fig. 13, and RD for the initial BG2-untested
sample grading. The figure clearly illustrates that the nar- 80 BG2-T1
Percentage finer: %

rower the distribution of the particle size, the greater the BG2-T2
BG2-T3
particle breakage after compression. The curves drawn here
60
are based on the mean values of relative breakage for the
samples of the same initial grading curve. Individual values
40
for each test for DBS are also shown to highlight the
dependency of the amount of breakage on the initial void
ratio of the DBS samples. Note that this figure is based on a 20
maximum vertical stress of 30 MPa for DBS and 107 MPa
for GBS and LBS. The figure also shows the effect of 0
grading on the gradient of the NCL (Cc ) and it is interesting 1 10 100 1000 10 000
Particle size: µm
to see that for DBS, there is approximately a linear relation- (b)
ship between Cc and the logarithmic value of the initial RD .
Here, the results of tests on an intermediate grading of DBS Fig. 8. Initial and final grading curves and shape factors for
between D1 and CD, with an RD value of 100, are also tests on GBS: (a) for test on BG1 and BCG; (b) for tests on
included, but the detailed data were omitted from previous BG2
figures for brevity.
The effect of the initial void ratio or packing of the DBS
samples on the final breakage can also be derived from these the highest breakage values, whereas those tests which were
data as shown in Fig. 12(b). An approximately linear performed using the fractal grading (RD ¼ 217) exhibited
relationship can be seen between the initial void ratio and zero breakage values lying on the x-axis. The effect of the
the final breakage for each individual initial grading of this initial void ratio on breakage values for samples of GBS and
sand. The line for the more uniformly graded samples LBS were not as pronounced and were more scattered than
(RD ¼ 1.2) can be seen at the top of this figure indicating for the DBS, but small effects can be seen in Figs 8–11.
468 ALTUHAFI AND COOP
1 0·8

Aspect ratio
Convexity

0·9
0·7
0·8

0·7 0·6
0·8 0·9
Aspect ratio

Sphericity
0·7
0·8
0·6

0·5 0·7
1 100
CG-untested
0·9 CG (sieve)

Percentage finer: %
80
Sphericity

CG-S4
0·8 CG-S5
60 CG-S6
0·7 OC-untested
40 OC-S6
OC-S7
0·6
100 20 G2

80
Percentage finer: %

G1 before test 0
G1-S1 (sieve)
1 10 100 1000
60 G1-S1
Particle size: µm
G1-S3
40 G1-30 MPa
Fig. 11. Initial and final grading curves and shape factors for
tests on LBS with initial gradings CG and OC
20
G1
initial
0
1 10 100 1000
Particle size: µm

Fig. 9. Initial and final grading curves and shape factors for Table 4. The relative distribution factor and values of the
tests on LBS with initial grading G1 coefficient of uniformity Cu and coefficient of curvature Ccu
for each initial grading of DBS

Grading ID Cu Ccu RD

D1 1.24 0.88 1.2

D2 5.32 1.35 6.8
D3 11.7 1.39 19.6
0·8 D4 55.5 2.68 100
CD 72.66 2.14 216
Aspect ratio

0·7

The reason for the more distinct effect for the DBS could be
0·6 that it was possible to create a greater range of initial void
0·9
ratios in this soil.
Sphericity

CHANGES TO PARTICLE SURFACE ROUGHNESS

The particle surface roughness was measured for each
sample by measuring the Sa value on 20 3 20 ìm areas of
0·85 the surfaces of selected particles. Although the particles
100
G2-untested were randomly selected, they had to have a size of more
G2-S1 than about 300 ìm to be able to make the measurement, so
Percentage finer: %

80
G2-S2
G2-S3
the data reflect changes to particle surface roughness of the
60 G2-S1 (sieve) coarser end of the grading in each case. Owing to the high
angularity of the GBS and DBS, surface roughness analyses
40 were not possible for these sands using existing techniques.
Fig. 14 shows the particle surface roughness for the untested
20
LBS with an initial grading between 1 and 2 mm (G1),
0 along with measurements which were made after (a) one-
1 10 100 1000
dimensional compression to 30 MPa and (b) one-dimensional
Particle size: µm compression to 107 MPa. In sample G1–30 MPa care was
taken to examine unbroken particle surfaces for the rough-
Fig. 10. Initial and final grading curves and shape factors for ness evaluation. The examination of the unbroken surfaces
tests on LBS with initial grading G2 might highlight any minor damage that was occurring to the
 CHANGES TO PARTICLE CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPRESSION OF SANDS 469
Data from 70
0·7 D1
DBS mean values 60
Relative breakage

0·6 LBS mean values

GBS mean values 50 Before test

Frequency: %
0·5 Data from DBS individual values Mean after G1-S1 and G1-S2
40
0·4 D2
After G1–30 MPa
Data from 30
0·3
D3
0·2 20
Data from
0·1 CD 10
0 0
NCL gradient, Cc

0–49

50–99

100–149

150–199

200–249

250–299

300–349

350–399

400–449

450–499
0·2 10 100 1000
Initial RD ⫽ (D90/D10)
0·4

0·6 Surface roughness, nm, Sa

(a)
0·8

Percentage change in surface roughness: %

(a)
20 Mean value
Individual tests of OC grading
0·7 Individual tests of GC grading
D90/D10 ⫽ 1·2 Individual tests of G2 grading
0·6 D90/D10 ⫽ 6·8 Individual tests of G1 grading
D90/D10 ⫽ 19·6 0
Relative breakage

0·5 D90/D10 ⫽ 100

D90/D10 ⫽ 217
0·4
0·3 ⫺20
0·2
0·1
0 ⫺40

0·4 0·8 1·2 1·6 2·0 1 10 100 1000

RD ⫽ D90/D10
Initial void ratio
(b)
(b)

Fig. 12. (a) Changes in the amount of breakage after compres- Fig. 14. Surface roughness measurements for LBS: (a) particle
sion and the compression index with relative distribution for surface roughness before and after tests on LBS with uniform
DBS, LBS and GBS. (b) Effect of packing (initial void ratio and grading G1 after one-dimensional compression to 30 MPa or
relative distribution) on relative breakage for DBS 107 MPa; (b) percentage changes in average surface roughness
after one-dimensional compression to 107 MPa for tests on LBS
with different initial gradings

A B
100
pressed to 107 MPa and a reduction in the number of
smooth particles (with an Sa value between 0 and 50 nm)
can be seen, resulting in a slight increase in the mean value
80
Percentage passing: %

of surface roughness from 81 nm before testing to 91 nm

0.074 mm
after, although this result may reflect the effect of using the
60
different method of selecting the particle surfaces.
Surface roughness measurements were also made on the
40 G1, G2, CG and OC gradings as shown in Fig. 14, which
D Initial grading
shows the change in surface roughness after compression
20 tests to 107 MPa against the logarithm of the relative
C After test
distribution factor (RD ). The percentage change in surface
0 roughness has been calculated
0·01 0·10 1·00 10·00
Particle size: mm Percentage change of surface roughness
Total breakage, Bt ⫽ area BCDB (4)
Breakage potential, Bp ⫽ area BCAB
S a ð f Þ  S a ð iÞ
¼ 3 100
Relative breakage, Br ⫽ Bt /Bp S a ð iÞ
Fig. 13. Schematic diagram showing the breakage parameters
proposed by Hardin (1985) where Sa ( f ) is the mean value of surface roughness after
testing and Sa (i) is the mean value of surface roughness of
the untested material. The results of each individual test are
shown as well as the mean value of tests for each individual
larger particles. However, a difficulty was encountered in grading. As discussed above, there was an increase in sur-
identifying undamaged surfaces for those samples which face roughness for those tests which experienced a signifi-
were compressed to 107 MPa because of the intense degree cant amount of particle breakage (grading G1), which might
of breakage. For all tests at 107 MPa, it could not be indicate that the broken surfaces of these particles had
ensured that the surfaces examined were the original sur- higher roughness values than the original particles. In con-
faces of the particle, and some may be new broken surfaces. trast, a decrease was seen for tests conducted on G2, which
The surface roughness shows no significant change after exhibited less breakage than G1, and a similar change was
one-dimensional compression to 30 MPa, but the change observed for those samples which experienced no breakage
started to be more pronounced when the sample was com- at all (CG and OC gradings). Again this might be an
470
indication that with no or minimal particle breakage the
plastic deformation of the soil mass is permitted by a
rearrangement of particles which is associated with an
abrasion that decreases the surface roughness for this
sand. Alternatively the particle surface roughness might be
reduced by plastic deformation of the asperities, and
Cavarretta et al. (2010) have observed that significant plastic
strain can occur at particle contacts through the flattening of
asperities as a process of plastic deformation rather than
breakage.
PRE-YIELD BEHAVIOUR
To investigate changes to particle shape characteristics
during one-dimensional compression in the pre-yield region,
samples were examined after a series of tests on the
uniformly distributed LBS (G1) which was subjected to a
maximum vertical stress of 3 MPa. This value of stress was
far below the yield stress for this grading, which is around
10 MPa, as can be seen from Fig. 6(a). The tests included
one monotonically loaded sample and one cyclically loaded
sample in which the sample was unloaded to 47.2 kPa and
re-loaded for ten cycles. A third test was conducted again
with ten similar loading cycles, but reconstituting the sample
between cycles. This was done to ensure that the particle
orientations and contacts were changed between each cycle.
The QicPic results for the monotonically loaded sample after
the test indicated no significant change in either the grading
or the shape characteristics of the sample. A similar result
was also obtained for the cyclically loaded sample as shown
in Fig. 15. However, around 0.63% of fines were produced
during the third test in which the sample was remoulded
between cycles. Although the presence of the fines was an
indication of damage to the sand particles at the contacts,
the shape parameters remained unchanged, which suggests
0·9
0·8
Shape factor
0·7
0·6
0·5
1000 1200 1400 1600
Particle size: µm
100 Untested material
Cyclic-reconstituted
Cyclic
80 Monotonic
Percentage finer: %
60
40
20
0 CSL
100 1000
Particle size: µm
Fig. 15. Changes to grading and shape factor after monotonic,
cyclic and cyclic with reconstitution tests on LBS
ALTUHAFI AND COOP
that the local damage at particle contacts is not affecting the
overall particle shape even if it might alter the surface
texture (Cavarretta et al., 2010). It is also interesting to
notice that apart from the creation of these fines there was
no other significant change to the grading.
CONCLUSIONS
The results discussed in this paper clarify some important
aspects related to compression in sands. First, a unique NCL
is related to large amounts of particle breakage in poorly
graded sands. A well-graded sample will have a lower com-
pression index and less clear yield point and exhibits less
breakage in comparison to a uniformly graded one. With the
reduction of particle breakage for well-graded sands, a
difficulty in defining the NCL is encountered, and a transi-
tional behaviour evolves as the particle breakage reduces to
levels that are not detectable. However, it is clear that
significant plastic volumetric compression can still occur in
well-graded sands even in the absence of significant break-
age. Another important conclusion is the dependency of
particle breakage on the initial density of the sample and the
fact that for a specific stress on the NCL the particle break-
age is not unique.
The results also show that different gradings result in
different types of deformation. For uniformly graded samples
many particles suffer catastrophic splitting, creating smaller
particles which are less spherical, less convex and with
lower aspect ratio than the original particles. In these
uniformly graded samples some increase in particle surface
roughness was also noted. The larger particles of a well-
graded sample will suffer from either asperity breakage and/
or perhaps flattening of asperities through plastic straining,
and there will be a reduction in surface roughness, but there
will be little, if any, particle splitting. It is probably this very
small amount of abrasion that permits the volumetric com-
pression to occur in those samples which otherwise show no
significant particle breakage.
Sphericity
The results also support the idea of critical or terminal
grading of a granular material, at which the particle size
distribution cannot evolve any more and no further breakage
Aspect
can be expected. This may well be a fractal grading as has
ratio been suggested previously.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Mr
1800 2000 Antonio Borges Rodriguez and Miss Bai Xue for kindly
providing some of the data for this research. The authors
would also like to thank Professor Peter Sammonds from the
Earth Sciences Department, University College London, for
providing the glacial basalt which was used in this study.
The authors are also grateful to Dr Ignazio Cavarretta for
his invaluable help and to Mr Alan Bolsher for manufactur-
ing the high-pressure oedometer.
NOTATION
AR aspect ratio
Br Hardin’s relative breakage
C convexity
Cc inclination of the NCL in e–log
v9 graph
Ccu coefficient of curvature
Cu coefficient of uniformity
critical state line
10 000 D fractal dimension
DBS Dog’s Bay sand
d size of particle
d10 particle size corresponding to 10% of the grading
d90 particle size corresponding to 90% of the grading
 CHANGES TO PARTICLE CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPRESSION OF SANDS
EQPC diameter of the equivalent circle with the same area as that
of the particle
e sample void ratio
GBS glacial basalt sand
LBS Leighton Buzzard sand
M percentage by mass
m, n number of points in the x and y directions
NCL normal compression line
PEQPC equivalent circle perimeter
Preal perimeter of particle two-dimensional projection
p9 effective pressure
RD relative distribution factor
S sphericity
Sa , Sq surface roughness parameters
Sa ( f ) mean value of surface roughness after test
Sa (i) mean value of surface roughness of untested material
Z deviation at each point from the mean height value

v9 vertical effective stress
REFERENCES
Altuhafi, F., Baudet, B. A. & Sammonds, P. (2006). Particle break-
age in glacial sediments. In Geomechanics and geotechnics of
particulate media (eds M. Hyodo, H. Murata and Y. Nakata),
pp. 21–24. London: Taylor & Francis.
Altuhafi, F. N., Baudet, B. A. & Sammonds, P. (2010). The mech-
anics of subglacial sediment: an example of new ‘transitional’
behaviour. Can. Geo. J. 47, No. 7, 775–790.
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