Micro-Mechanical Properties of Expanded Clay Particles
Haithem Ben Jamaa1, Latifa Elgezal2, Mehrez Jamei3
1Haithem Ben Jamaa, Tunis El Manar University, National Engineering School of Tunis, Civil engineering Laboratory, Tunis, Tunisia.
2Latifa Elghezal, Tunis El Manar University, National Engineering School of Tunis, Civil engineering Laboratory, Tunis, Tunisia.
3Mehrez Jamei, Tunis El Manar University, National Engineering School of Tunis, Civil Engineering Laboratory, Tunis, Tunisia.
Manuscript received on 27 August 2019. | Revised Manuscript received on 18 September 2019. | Manuscript published on 30 September 2019. | PP: 840-844 | Volume-8 Issue-11, September 2019. | Retrieval Number: K15010981119/2019©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.K1501.0981119
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to study the micro-mechanical behavior of an industrial crushable and highly porous granular material. Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregates (LECA) was selected in this research for testing thanks to its brittle nature and highly porous character which makes it easier to study the crushable behavior of this material. LECA’s micro-mechanical properties were identified to understand the parameters that affect particle’s crushing. Uniaxial compression tests, consisting on compressing the particles between two rigid platens, were made on a set of single LECA’s particles to investigate the force displacement response and the Hertzian behavior was identified as the contact law. The particles’ strengths were determined for tested granules using the crushing force and grains’ Young moduli were calculated using the suggested contact law. Due to their high variability, the particles’ crushing stress and their Young moduli were related to particle’s dimension using a suggested power law to predict these mico-mechanical properties. Results have shown a high dependency between the particle’s micro-mechanical properties and their dimensions.
Keywords: Expanded clay, Particle crushing, Uniaxial compression test, Micro-mechanical properties.
Scope of the Article: Mechanical Design