Particle breakage in construction materials: A geotechnical perspective

• Published in: Construction & building materials 2023-06, Vol.381, p.131308, Article 131308
• Main Authors: John, Nithin Jacob, Khan, Imdadullah, Kandalai, Srikanth, Patel, Anjan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Breakage index; Crushing; Engineering properties; Industrial wastes; Particle breakage; Soil parameters
• ISSN: 0950-0618; 1879-0526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2023.131308

[Display omitted] •Engineering behaviour of soil changes with particle breakage.•Breakage factor keeps on increasing till it attains an ultimate value.•Effects of grain size dominates over minerology on particle breakage.•For the same density, grain crushing depends upon the mode of loading.•Further revelation of crushing behaviour in industrial wastes is to be done. An extensive review of literature related to particle breakage and crushing has been done in this paper by filtering out a total of 183 articles from the respective domains. Based upon the analysis and synthesis of data, grain morphology and soil matrix structure are found to be the dominant factors on particle breakage. The breakage index may increase or decrease with respect to degree of saturation and the relative density depending upon the amount of confining pressure and mode of loading, respectively. It is also found that particle breakage is inversely proportional to the rate of loading. Moreover, the granular materials respond differently to the isotropic and deviatoric stress conditions, and accordingly the breakage indices may vary even for the same state of density. Further, the breakage indices determined by considering the shifting of gradation curve before and after crushing are found to be more accurate than the one determined by corresponding to an individual grain size. Some of the limitations in the literature includes non-inclusion of all the influencing parameter in the analysis by individual researches, insufficient studies on non-traditional granular material, and lack of large-scale model studies for proper inclusion of site-specific conditions etc. Since, the same generic rules cannot be applied to different types of granular media and one-to-one correlations may not be helpful, it is recommended to develop models and supplement the laboratory test results with numerical studies by simultaneously considering various influencing parameters. New guidelines relevant to the use of non-traditional granular materials should be formulated for various construction purposes in consideration of its crushing characteristics.