A generalized methodology for determination of crushing strength of granular materials

Determination of crushing strength of granular material is very important for assessing its suitability in various engineering and industrial applications. Laboratory investigations that would yield stress–strain behaviour, and hence, crushing strength of the granular material are extremely cumbersome and time consuming. Also, results obtained from these experiments get influenced by the aspect ratio of the sample, its density, strain rate, size and shape of the grains etc. These difficulties can be overcome by developing a generalized mathematical model, which is primarily based on the physical properties of the granular material such as particle-size and specific gravity, for estimating its crushing strength. With this in view, experiments were conducted on different types of granular materials such as sands, cenospheres (which are found in fly ash and bottom ash) and glass beads, and the results were used for developing such a model. Details of the testing methodology adopted to achieve this are also presented in this paper and validation of the proposed model has been done based on the experimental results and the results reported in the literature.