Centrifuge Modelling With Transparent Soil and Laser Aided Imaging

Abstract

Transparent synthetic soils have been developed as a soil surrogate to enable internal visualization of geotechnical processes in physical models. While significant developments have been made to enhance the methodology and capabilities of transparent soil modelling, the technique is not yet exploited to its fullest potential. Tests are typically conducted at 1 g in small bench size models, which invokes concerns about the impact of scale and stress level observed in previously reported work. This paper recognized this limitation and outlines the development of improved testing methodology whereby the transparent soil and laser aided imaging technique are translated to the centrifuge environment. This has a considerable benefit such that increased stresses are provided, which better reflect the prototype condition. The paper describes the technical challenges associated with implementing this revised experimental methodology, summarizes the test equipment/ systems developed, and presents initial experimental results to validate and confirm the successful implementation and scaling of transparent soil testing to the high gravity centrifuge test environment. A 0.6 m wide prototype strip foundation was tested at two scales using the principle of "modelling of models," in which similar performance was observed. The scientific developments discussed have the potential to provide a step change in transparent soil modelling methodology, crucially providing more representative stress conditions that reflect prototype conditions, while making a broader positive contribution to physical modelling capabilities to assess complex soil-structure boundary problems.

Desenvolvimento da Técnica de Solos Transparentes para Modelagem Física de problemas Geotécnicos.

“…Atualmente existem 6 tipos de famílias de solos transparentes que vem sendo utilizado cada vez mais por pesquisadores para a modelagem de diferentes problemas geotécnicos. As famílias são: a sílica amorfa (LEHANE e GILL 2004;NI et al 2010;HIRD et al 2011;SONG et al, 2009, BLACK, 2015; GUZMAN e ALFARO 2016; a sílica gel granular (ISKANDER e LIU, 2010;WANG et al 2018); hidrogel (FERNANDEZ SERRANO et al 2011); quatzo fundido (KONG et al, 2015, CHEN et al, 2014, EZZEIN, 2014FERREIRA e ZORNBERG 2015;QI et al 2017);laponita (CHINI et al 2015) e gelita (HAKHAMANESHI et al, 2016).…”

“…Recentemente a técnica de solos transparentes associada a técnicas de correlação digital de imagens vem se desenvolvendo constantemente para a modelagem física de diferentes problemas geotécnicos, sobretudo para uma visualização dos mecanismos de interação solo-estrutura (KELLY, 2015; ISKANDER e LIU 2010), processos térmicos, fluxo de contaminantes, deformações do solo devido a construção de túneis e testes em centrífugas (BLACK, 2015).…”

Caracterização de materiais para a aplicação em solo transparente

“…Em alguns países ela já é difundida como, por exemplo nos Estados Unidos e Canadá (Liu et. al 2003, Ezzein & Bathurst 2010Ezzein & Bathurst 2014, Peng & Zornberg 2017, Peng & Zornberg 2019 e na Europa (Mckelvey et al 2004, Black 2015, Jan Derksen et al 2021. No Brasil, a técnica ainda é pouco utilizada, mas alguns trabalhos já podem ser encontrados (Carvalho 2015e Lopes 2019.…”

Study on Permeability Characteristics of Porous Transparent Gels Based on Synthetic Materials

“…Hird et al [15] studied pile permeability using transparent soil synthesized from silica and pore fluid. In addition, transparent soils synthesized with silica as aggregate were applied to sandy soil foundation improvement [16] and high-gravity centrifugal experiments [17].…”