Abstract
This paper investigates the effects of soil particle size on the measurement accuracy of single-point type tactile pressure sensors when used for measuring soil contact stresses. Sensors with two different diameters () are integrated into an oedometer cell. Granular materials with a wide range of particle diameters () and angularities (from rounded to irregular shaped) are evaluated, resulting in a wide range of ratios of from 2.6 to 105.8. The test results show that the soil particle size significantly affects and exponentially correlates with the measurement accuracy of the sensor. A threshold of 10.5 is identified for the sensor, beyond which the error is less than 5%. It is also shown that even for ratios of as large as 40, an error of approximately 2% can be observed, which is intrinsic to the sensor.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the Collaborative Research Fund #C6006-20G funded by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council and Grant No. 51922112 provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
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Received: Oct 27, 2021
Accepted: Jun 2, 2022
Published online: Aug 1, 2022
Published in print: Oct 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jan 1, 2023
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