• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.193-204
• /
• 1999

Particle crushing is an important and essential factor in interpreting the strength and deformation properties of granular materials in the case of geotechnical problems related to soil crushability. As a recent field problem, the exploitation of offshore oil reserves in tropical and sub-tropical coastal shelf areas has shown that the behaviour of soils containing carbonates is markedly different from predominantly silica sands. In this study, as a first step in making a mechanical framework of granular materials incorporating the soil crushability, single particle fragmentation tests were carried out on four different types of sands in order to clarify the characteristics of the single particle fragmentation strength as related to soil crushability. The single particle strength was considered with the influence of the particle shapes, the amount of mineral components and the particle sizes. The soil particle strength corresponding $D_{50}$ of soil distribution curve has shown the lower value, the more the carbonate component and the more angular the particle shape.