Journal of Northeastern University Natural Science ›› 2016, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (11): 1640-1644.DOI: 10.12068/j.issn.1005-3026.2016.11.025

• Resources & Civil Engineering • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Analysis of Particle Shape Characteristics of Lunar Soil Simulant and Its Effect on Shear Strength

LIN Cheng-xiang, ZHONG Shi-ying, LING Dao-sheng   

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geo-environmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
  • Received:2015-06-19 Revised:2015-06-19 Online:2016-11-15 Published:2016-11-18
  • Contact: LIN Cheng-xiang
  • About author:-
  • Supported by:
    -

Abstract: In order to study the effect of particle shape characteristics on shear strength, particles of lunar soil simulant are scanned and photographed with a stereo microscope. Then, a digital imaging processing software is used to statistically analyze the geometric characteristics of the particles. It shows that the particles of lunar soil simulant mainly are of four shapes: sphere, quasi-ellipsoid shape, quasi-trigonal shape and quasi-cube shape. Particles with the three irregular shapes are simulated as clumps in PFC 3D, and the numerical model of tri-axial test is obtained to study their shear strength. The numerical results show that: the particle shape has a noticeable effect on shear strength; the shear strength of particles of quasi-ellipsoid shape is the greatest of all, while the sphere particles has the minimum shear strength. For particles of the same quasi-trigonal shape, the greater ruggedness it is, the stronger shear strength the sample has.

Key words: lunar soil simulant, shape of particle, tri-axial compression test, shear strength, PFC 3D numerical simulation

CLC Number: