Comparative Study of Carbonate and Quartz Sand Based on Energy Concepts

Carbonate sands have being known as problematic soils in civil engineering and their strength is different from those of quartz sands. In this paper Triaxial consolidated-drained shear strength of a carbonate sand obtained from north beach of Oman sea is compared with Firoozkooh quartz sand. Energy concept is used for the analysis. Tests were performed in the same conditions such as particle size distribution, relative density and confining pressure on sands with different particles shapes. Tests results and analysis showed considerable differences between two sands regarding the shear strength and its components, soil volume changes, particle breakage potential and its effects on the shear strength, consumed energy for the particle crushing, dilation and particle crushing portion from the total internal friction angle of soils. At the end, it was found that there is a linear relation between the consumed energy for particle crushing from total applied energy to the soil specimen and particle breakage portion from the soil total internal friction angle. In the carbonate sand with high particle breakage ability a value of %14-31 and in the quartz sand maximum %10 of applied energy is consumed for particle breakage.