Coupling effects of morphology and inner pore distribution on the mechanical response of calcareous sand particles

Calcareous sand is typically known as a problematic marine sediment because of its diverse morphology and complex inner pore structure. However, the coupling effects of morphology and inner pores on the mechanical properties of calcareous sand particles have rarely been investigated and understood. In this study, apparent contours and internal pore distributions of calcareous sand particles were obtained by three-dimensional (3D) scanning imaging and X-ray micro-computed tomography (X-mCT), respectively. It was revealed that calcareous sand particles with different outer morphologies have different porosities and inner pore distributions because of their original sources and particle transport processes. In addition, a total of 120 photo-related compression tests and 492 3D discrete element simulations of four specific shaped particles, i.e. bulky, angular, dendritic and flaky, with variations in the inner pore distribution were conducted. The macroscopic particle strength and Weibull modulus obtained from the physical tests are not positively correlated with the porosity or regularity in shape, indicating the existence of coupling effect of particle shape and pore distribution. The shape effect on the particle strength first increases with the porosity and then decreases. The particle crushing of relatively regular particles is governed by the porosity, but that of extremely irregular particles is governed by the particle shape. The particle strength increases with the uniformity of the pore distribution. Particle fragmentation is mainly dependant on tensile bond strength, and the degree of tensile failure is considerably impacted by the particle shape but limited by the pore distribution. (C) 2023 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).