2021/12/23 by Matthias Ruf, Ruf, Matthias, Kianoosh Taghizadeh +3
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Drilling and Well Engineering #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Seismic Imaging and Inversion Techniques #Soil and Unsaturated Flow #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #physics.geo-ph #physics.ins-det
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2112.12423
17 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Survey for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM Mitteilungen)
arxiv created 2021/12/23 · openalex publication_date 2021/12/23 · arxiv updated 2021/12/24 · openalex created_date 2022/05/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this contribution, cylindrical samples consisting of monodisperse soft (rubber) and stiff (glass) particles are pre-stressed under uniaxial compression. Acoustic P-waves at ultrasound frequencies are superimposed into prepared samples with different soft-stiff volume fractions. Earlier investigations showed the importance of particles networks, i.e. force chains, in controlling the effective mechanical properties of particulate systems. Measured P-wave modulus showed a significant decline while more soft particles are added due to a change in microstructure. However, for small contents of soft particles, it could be observed that the P-wave modulus is increasing. For the understanding of such kinds of effects, detailed insight into the microstructure of the system is required. To gain this information and link it to the effective properties, we made use of high-resolution micro X-ray Computed Tomography (micro-XRCT) imaging and combined it with the classical stiffness characterization. Both performed in situ meaning inside the laboratory-based XRCT scanner. With micro-XRCT imaging, the granular microstructure can be visualized in 3d and characterized subsequently. By post-processing of the data, the individual grains of the particulate systems could be uniquely identified. Finally, the contact network of the packings which connects the center of particles was established to demonstrate the network transition from stiff- to soft-dominated regimes. This has allowed for unprecedented observations and a renewed understanding of particulate systems. It has been demonstrated that micro-XRCT scans of particles packings can be analyzed and compared in 3d to gain extensive information on the scale of the single particles. Here, the in situ setup and workflow from the start of acquiring images in situ till the post-processing of the image data is explained and demonstrated by selected results.