Abstract
Coordination number (CN) is a fundamental microscale variable in soils affecting the macroscale parameters of the material such as porosity, stiffness under loading, and stability under hydraulic gradients. However, most studies on CN have focused on sphere or ellipsoid packings using the discrete element method (DEM). By means of computed tomography (CT) and image-processing techniques, this work rigorously computes the three-dimensional (3D) sphericity and roundness of each grain in five sands and investigates the impact of particle shape on CN. The results show that the average coordination number () of different sands and the CN of grains within a given sand may be impacted differently by particle shape. For a given equivalent diameter of a given sand, more irregular grain packings show a subtle higher CN, and this change in CN increases with increasing grain size. However, air-pluviated irregular particle packings with poor gradation may exhibit lower average because of particle orientational alignment, particle interlocking, and surface roughness.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Acknowledgments
The Imaging and Medical Beam Line (IMBL) at the Australian Synchrotron, Dr. A. Maksimenko, and other beam scientists are acknowledged for their support. The first author thanks The University of Melbourne for offering the Melbourne Research Scholarship.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 12 • December 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 29, 2020
Accepted: Jun 26, 2020
Published online: Sep 25, 2020
Published in print: Dec 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Feb 25, 2021
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