Contribution to the Study of Mechanical Behavior of Granular Media

This paper aimed at an experimental study carried out in a laboratory on calcite sand in order to characterize the behavior of the granular media using oedometric tests. Enormous quantities of this type of material exist in nature. In addition, it is the most used in various industrial sectors, especially in civil engineering in such fields as the manufacture of railway ballast. In these fields, the mechanical interactions between particles govern the macroscopic behavior of these materials. All grains constituting these materials have very diverse geometric and mechanical characteristics. Similarly, the solicitations interact between them are subjected, during the development phases, to the cycles of transport and storage. These materials often have complex behaviors due to the large number of their constituents, the complex role of local geometry (shape and grain arrangement) as well as the variety of interactions between grains (contact and friction). As a result, this study was devoted to studying the effects of the initial grain size curve, the initial density state, the consolidation stress, and the type of test on the mechanical properties. So, the overall mechanical behavior of these granular materials is strongly dependent on the spreading particle size, in contrast to the tight case. In addition, while the state of density can be influenced by the saturation mode, it is more marked for the dry mode.