A transparent aqueous-saturated sand surrogate for use in physical modeling

Geotechnical Properties of a Transparent Sand

“…The images show that the maximum depth at which the tapes can be clearly seen is 14cm, and the maximum visible depth is about 20cm. These are higher than the values obtained by Guzman et al (2014), and Ezzein and Bathurst (2011), which are 5 cm and 12 cm respectively. The transparent sand samples were left in the container for two weeks under indoor environment and no detectable change has been observed in transparency.…”

“…However the samples prepared with glass beads is only semi-transparent, and the visibility of objects in the sands is very low (Sadek et al, 2002). Iskander et al (2002b) used sphere silica gel particles to prepare samples with higher transparency, but the existing of internal pores in silica gel particles makes the material deform plastically even under low stress levels, which limited the usage of the material greatly (Zhao and Ge 2007;Guzman et al 2014). Transparent clay was also manufactured by Iskander et al (2002a) using amorphous silica powder and it has properties that are in consistent with the macroscopic properties of many natural clays.…”

Effect of Temperature on Triaxial Behavior of a Sand with Disaccharide

“…For example, a disaccharide solution was identified to find a suitable water-based fluid to visualize conditions within soil models. Disaccharides, which have more favorable properties than other fluids (i.e., mineral oil, calcium bromide brine), are carbohydrates consisting of two monosaccharides, simply referred to as sucrose, linked by a glycosidic bond [6]. Carbohydrates consist of the elements oxygen (O), hydrogen (H) and carbon (C) with a ratio of hydrogen twice that of oxygen and carbon.…”

Terminal depth of penetration of spherical projectiles in transparent granular media

“…These materials are comprised of quartz glass combined with a refractive indexmatching liquid. It has been shown that the quasi-static rheological and geotechnical properties of these mixtures closely resemble those of natural sands [14,16,17]. Part of the motivation for this study is to further characterize the behavior of the recently introduced transparent soil surrogates and compare their behavior to well established penetration models.…”

“…Penetration tests show whether or not this material, which Cavity Ottawa Sand Projectile Fig. 1 Projectile rebound in an Ottawa sand target, as seen through an acrylic observation window mimics sand in idealized mechanical tests [17], also behaves like sand in penetration tests. If the semi-empirical models developed for sand work for these materials it validates both the generality of the models and the use of these materials as surrogates for naturally occurring materials.…”