Statistical Crushing of Hollow Calcareous Sediments

Whereas the crushing of solid soil particles has been studied for decades, there is very little research performed on the micro-mechanics of hollow particles crushing. In this paper a statistical model based on the principles of Weibull survival statistics is presented to analyze the particle size distribution and void ratio evolutions during one-dimensional (1D) crushing of hollow particles. It was found that 1D crushing of hollow particles tends to evolve toward gap grading. A theoretical Beta factor (β) is introduced and implemented to parametrically study impact of microscale exchange of intraparticle void space from within the hollow particles to the external void space on the macroscale behavior. These trends are compared with a calcareous sediment from the Browse Basin which is located on the North West Shelf (NWS) of Australia and contains hollow sand particles from biologic origins. Whereas the bulk void ratio tends to decrease in all cases when hollow particles are crushed, it appears that the extraparticle void ratio increases in most cases presented in this study. A more in depth understanding of the mechanisms of intraparticle voids exchange may lead to better analytical, finite element, and discrete element models of the unique shear and compression behaviors of hollow calcareous sediments through the work of this statistical model.