Mechanical test data of quartz sand, garnet sand, gypsum powder (plaster), kaolin and sand-plaster mixtures used as granular analogue materials in geoscience laboratory experiments

Cite as:

Poppe, Sam; Holohan, Eoghan P.; Rudolf, Michael; Rosenau, Matthias; Galland, Olivier; Delcamp, Audray; Van Gompel, Gert; Buls, Nico; Soens, Bastien; Pohlenz, Andre; Mourgues, Régis; Kervyn, Matthieu (2021): Mechanical test data of quartz sand, garnet sand, gypsum powder (plaster), kaolin and sand-plaster mixtures used as granular analogue materials in geoscience laboratory experiments. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/fidgeo.2021.005

Status

I N R E V I E W : Poppe, Sam; Holohan, Eoghan P.; Rudolf, Michael; Rosenau, Matthias; Galland, Olivier; Delcamp, Audray; Van Gompel, Gert; Buls, Nico; Soens, Bastien; Pohlenz, Andre; Mourgues, Régis; Kervyn, Matthieu (2021): Mechanical test data of quartz sand, garnet sand, gypsum powder (plaster), kaolin and sand-plaster mixtures used as granular analogue materials in geoscience laboratory experiments. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/fidgeo.2021.005

Abstract

This dataset provides mechanical test data for quartz sand (“MAM1ST-300”, Sibelco, Mol, Belgium), gypsum powder (plaster; “Goldband”, Knauf), kaolin clay powder, garnet sand, and mixtures of quartz sand and gypsum powder, used at the Analogue Laboratory of the Department of Geography at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, for simulating brittle rocks in the upper crust (Poppe et al., 2019). The measured properties are density ρ, tensile strength T0, shear strength σ, obtained by density measurements, ring-shear tests (RST; at Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ, Germany), direct shear tests, traction tests (at University of Maine, Le Mans, France) and extension tests. The obtained tensile strengths and shear strengths reconstruct two-dimensional failure envelopes for each material. By fitting linear Coulomb and non-linear combined Griffith failure criteria to the characterised failure envelopes (Jaeger et al., 2007), the internal friction coefficient µC, Coulomb cohesion CC and Griffith cohesion CG are obtained. The influence of the material emplacement technique has been investigated in Poppe et al. (2021) to which this data set is supplementary, by repeat characterisation of the above physical parameters under three emplacement conditions, i.e. sieving, pouring (non-dried state) and compaction after pouring (oven-dried state).

We find that densities of the materials and mixtures range from ~1600 kg.m³ (sieved) and ~1700 kg.m³ (compacted) for pure quartz sand to ~600 kg.m³ (poured) to ~900 kg.m³ (compacted) for pure plaster. Tensile strengths range from ~166 Pa (sand) to ~425 Pa (plaster). Velocity ring-shear tests on a 90 wt% quartz sand – 10 wt% plaster mixture show a minor shear rate-weakening of <2% per ten-fold increase in shear velocity. The materials show a behavior ranging from Mohr-Coulomb behavior for the materials with coarser grain size (sands) to combined Griffith-Mohr-Coulomb behavior for the powder materials (plaster, kaolin), with the sand-plaster mixtures occupying a spectrum between both end-members. Peak friction coefficients range from ~0.5 (sand) to ~0.6 (plaster) with a maximum of ~0.9 (80:20 wt% sand:plaster), peak Coulomb cohesions range from 13 Pa (sand) to 248 Pa (plaster), peak Griffith cohesions range from ~10 Pa (sand) to ~425 Pa (plaster).

Authors

Poppe, Sam;Physical Geography, Department of Geography, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium;Laboratoire G-Time, Department of Geosciences, the Environment and Society, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Holohan, Eoghan P.;UCD School of Earth Sciences, University College of Dublin, Ireland
Rudolf, Michael;GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany
Rosenau, Matthias;GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany
Galland, Olivier;Physics of Geological Processes, Njord Center, University of Oslo, Norway
Delcamp, Audray;Physical Geography, Department of Geography, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Van Gompel, Gert;Department of Radiology, UZ Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Buls, Nico;Department of Radiology, UZ Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Soens, Bastien;Analytical, Environmental and Geo-Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium;Laboratoire G-Time, Department of Geosciences, the Environment and Society, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Pohlenz, Andre;GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany
Mourgues, Régis;Géosciences Le Mans, Le Mans Université, France
Kervyn, Matthieu;Physical Geography, Department of Geography, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Contact

Poppe, Sam (Postdoc Researcher) ; Laboratoire G-Time, Department of Geosciences, the Environment and Society, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium; ➦

Keywords

quartz sand, garnet sand, hemihydrate gypsum powder, kaolin clay powder, laboratory experiments, analogue materials, granular materials, mechanical tests, tensile strength, shear strength, internal friction, friction coefficient, Coulomb failure, Griffith failure, ring shear test, direct shear test, tensile test, extensional test, dilation, bulk density, volcano, faults, deformation, structural processes, compound material > sedimentary material > sediment > sand size sediment > sand, experiment > laboratory experiment, material > building material > gypsum, material > raw material > sand, science > natural science > earth science > geology, science > natural science > earth science > geology > tectonics