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Friction Angles of Sands: An Appraisal

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Abstract

River sand is a naturally occurring conventional construction material, which has good frictional properties. Due to a steep rise in the construction activities all over the world, natural sand resources are getting depleted. This has favored / forced the construction industry in general and geotechnical engineering practice in particular to go for manufactured sands (M-sands). This necessitates a proper understanding of the frictional characteristics of M–sands. In this technical note, the results from a comparative study of the friction angles of river sand and M-sand with reference to the effect of grain size, grain angularity, dry density and gradation are reported. It is shown that M-sand exhibits higher friction angles than river sand at minimum density levels and river sand exhibits higher friction angles than M-sand at maximum density levels, on average, irrespective of grain size. It is also shown that poorly graded M-sands exhibit higher friction angles than well graded M-sands at minimum density levels, whereas well graded river sands have higher friction angles than poorly graded river sands irrespective of density levels.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the assistance of Mr. K.S. Manish received during the experimental work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysuru, 570 006, India

    K. Prakash, N. Manoj &  Manoj

  2. Indian National Science Academy, Delhi, India

    A. Sridharan

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  1. K. Prakash
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  2. A. Sridharan
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  3. N. Manoj
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  4. Manoj
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Correspondence to K. Prakash.

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Prakash, K., Sridharan, A., Manoj, N. et al. Friction Angles of Sands: An Appraisal. Geotech Geol Eng 41, 4865–4872 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02548-9

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