Model Tests

Abstract

A useful tool in engineering is the analysis of the behavior of a structure by doing a model test, at a reduced scale. The purpose of the test may be just to investigate a phenomenon in a qualitative way, but more often its purpose is to obtain quantitative information. In that case the scale rules must be known. For a soil a special difficulty is that the mechanical properties often depend upon the state of stress, which is determined to a large extent by the weight of the soil itself. This means that in a scale model the soil properties are not well represented, because in the model the stresses are much smaller than in reality (the prototype).