TY  - JOUR
AB  - © 2020 ICE Publishing: all rights reserved. Previous studies indicate that particle shape plays an important role in the hydraulic conductivity (k) of granular materials, often represented through the Kozeny-Carman (KC) concept. Several recent studies have improved the accuracy of the KC approach using the particle-size distribution (PSD) to estimate the specific surface area of particles but overly simplifying the effect of particle shape. This current study innovatively adopts the micro-computed tomography technique to compute particle shape parameters of different granular materials (e.g. glass beads, sand and crushed gravel) and then incorporate these parameters into the KC equation to estimate k more accurately, which is then validated with experimental data. The results indicate that k varies significantly according to different particle shapes even if the same mean porosity and PSD are retained. Particles that are less spherical and rounded have a larger fluid-particle contact area (i.e. larger shape factor), hence a smaller hydraulic conductivity. The study suggests a shape factor of 1·28-1·52 for natural sand and 1·84-2·1 for crushed sand and gravel can be used for KC method to estimate k while a porosity-dependent equation is proposed to estimate the tortuosity for different shaped materials.
AU  - Nguyen, TT
AU  - Indraratna, B
DA  - 2020/09/01
DO  - 10.1680/jgele.20.00032
EP  - 403
JO  - Geotechnique Letters
PB  - Thomas Telford Ltd.
PY  - 2020/09/01
SP  - 398
TI  - The role of particle shape on hydraulic conductivity of granular soils captured through Kozeny-Carman approach
VL  - 10
Y1  - 2020/09/01
Y2  - 2026/07/29
ER  -