Quantifying morphology of sands using 3D imaging

Khalid A. Alshibli, Andrew M. Druckrey, Riyadh I. Al-Raoush, Taylor Weiskittel, Nickolay V. Lavrik

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

131 Scopus citations

Abstract

Particle morphology plays a significant role in influencing engineering behavior of granular materials. Surface texture, roundness, and sphericity represent distinct multiscale measures needed to fully describe particle morphology. Most studies reported in the literature rely on two-dimensional (2D) projected images of particles with a few three-dimensional (3D) images that mostly focused on relatively large-size aggregate samples. In this paper, 3D synchrotron microcomputed tomography (SMT) was used to acquire high-resolution images of glass beads, F-35 Ottawa sand, #1 dry glass sand, GS#40 Columbia sand, Toyoura sand, and Hostun RF sand. New roundness and sphericity indexes are proposed and calculated for the samples based on 3D measurements of surface area, volume, and three orthogonal diameters of particles. In addition, the surface texture of particles were measured using optical interferometry technique. The measurements reported in this paper can serve as a good source for other researchers working on sands to build on these intrinsic particle properties to link engineering behavior of sands to their morphology.

Original languageEnglish
Article number04014275
JournalJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume27
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2015

Keywords

  • Friction
  • Granular materials
  • Microscopic analysis
  • Roundness
  • Sand
  • Shape
  • Sphericity
  • Surface roughness
  • Synchrotron computed tomography
  • Three-dimensional (3D)

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