This study aims to systematically investigate the influence mechanism of particle size and surface roughness on the shear mechanical behavior of spherical particle materials. Rough glass beads with different particle sizes (2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm) were prepared using sandblasting technique. Together with smooth glass beads, they were used as test raw materials for indoor triaxial consolidated-drained (CD) tests. Based on the quantitative characterization of particle surface roughness, the differences in the shear mechanical properties of spherical particle materials, including stress-strain curves, strength parameters, critical state characteristics, and stick-slip behavior, etc., were discussed from the aspects of the particle size effect (R), the surface roughness index (Ra), and the normalized roughness effect (Ra/R). The main research results show that: increasing the surface roughness of particles can improve various shear mechanical parameters to a certain extent. This includes effectively increasing the peak deviatoric stress, expanding the range of the strength envelope, and raising the deviatoric stress corresponding to the specimen in the critical failure state. It can significantly increase the peak friction angle phi by approximately 10 %-40 % and the critical state line slope (CSL slope) by about 5 %-23 %. Moreover, the increase becomes more pronounced as the particle size decreases. Meanwhile, as the normalized roughness effect (Ra/R) increases, the friction coefficient becomes larger, which greatly weakens the stick-slip behavior between particles.

Particle crushing usually occurs in granular materials and affects their structural and mechanical properties. To investigate the mechanical behavior and crushing characteristics of heterogeneous particles, this study conducts both laboratory tests and numerical simulations for a macro-microscopic analysis of the heterogeneous particles. The laboratory tests results demonstrate that the single particle crushing strength and crushing pattern have obvious size effect. In numerical simulations, the heterogeneous crushable particle model was constructed by using Gaussian distribution and Voronoi tessellation, and the degree of heterogeneity (d) is defined as the ratio of the standard deviation to the expected value. The numerical findings demonstrate that the size effect of crushing strength is mainly attributed to heterogeneity. The degree of heterogeneity weakens the particle crushing strength. As the d value increases, the force-displacement curve of the particle exhibits stronger nonlinear characteristics, and the macroscopic failure pattern changes from brittle failure to ductile failure. Additionally, with the increase in d, the deformation coordination between child particles decreases, which leads to enhanced local stress concentration, causing a reduction in the crack initiation stress. This change causes the crack propagation mode to evolve from a sharp angle to a blunt angle, and ultimately determines the crushing strength and crushing pattern of particles. (c) 2025 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

The direct simple shear (DSS) test is one of the most popular testing techniques for measuring the shear strength of soils and mine waste tailings. However, uncertainties remain regarding the suitable sample diameter and whether a DSS sample should be saturated or can be tested without flushing with water. Various designs and configurations of shearing caps are also incorporated in different DSS equipment with little information on their performance and comparison soil shearing behavior with different caps. This study examines the monotonic shearing behavior, static liquefaction and instability, and post-liquefaction strength of a coarse oil tailings sand in extensive series of monotonic DSS tests on two different specimen diameters of 50 mm and 70 mm. Moist-tamped samples are reconstituted with and without flushing with water and sheared using top and bottom caps with concentric wedges and projecting pins. These are examined across a wide range of consolidation vertical stress, and for three different stress paths corresponding to undrained (CV), drained (CVS), and constant-shear unloading (CSU) shearing paths. Static liquefaction and instability were triggered in the CV and the CSU tests at the emergences of undrained strength reduction and volumetric collapse, respectively. The results show little effects of sample flushing and diameter on the static liquefaction triggering and post-liquefaction shear strengths of the tailings sand. The effect of sample diameter was primarily observed on the one-dimensional compressibility and volumetric strain of samples. The smaller diameter specimens underwent smaller volume changes during one-dimensional compression and drained shearing compared with the larger D = 70 specimens.

To assess the mechanical behavior of granular materials in triaxial tests, a mandatory condition is to guarantee a representative elemental volume (REV) sample. This is achieved by limiting the minimum sample size and the coarsest particle in the sample (dmax\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$d_\textrm{max}$$\end{document}). The common geotechnical practice is based on the sample scales H/D and alpha=D/dmax\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\alpha = D/d_\textrm{max}$$\end{document}, where D is the sample diameter and H is its height. While, it is widely accepted that H/D should be between 2 and 2.5, international standards do not agree on the minimum alpha\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\alpha$$\end{document}, and the recommended values vary widely between 5 and 20. Moreover, the impact of particle size distribution on REV is not well understood and is consequently overlooked by most standards. In this paper, we present a study of the effects of alpha\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\alpha$$\end{document} and grading on the critical shear strength of granular materials. We conducted DEM simulations of triaxial tests on samples with values of alpha\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\alpha$$\end{document} ranging from 5 to 20 and grading that varied from mono-size particle assemblies to samples, where the ratio between the coarsest and finest particle was dmax/dmin=4\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$d_\textrm{max}/d_\textrm{min}\ = 4$$\end{document}. The results show that the minimum alpha\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\alpha$$\end{document} required to obtain an REV depends on grading. While, for mono-size particle assemblies REV conditions are obtained for alpha >= 12.5\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\alpha \ \ge 12. 5$$\end{document}, better graded samples behave as REV once alpha >= 8\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\alpha \ \ge \ 8$$\end{document}. A detailed analysis of macro and microscopic parameters reveals that alpha\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\alpha$$\end{document} is not necessarily the most suitable parameter to assess REV scales. We discover that, in our samples, a unique relationship between critical shear strength and the number of grains carrying interparticle forces (Np & lowast;\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$N_p*$$\end{document}) exists independently of grading. In effect, REV can be systematically defined as long as Np & lowast;>= 3000\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$N_p* \ge 3000$$\end{document}. The physical source of this observation is linked to the evolution of contact arrangement and force transmission mechanisms, which evolve according to the number of particles engaged in load bearing.

The direct simple shear (DSS) test serves as a vital method in geotechnics, allowing the measurement of peak and post-liquefaction shear strengths, along with the critical state friction angle of soils. Additionally, the simple shearing mode applied in a DSS test is the predominant failure mode in many geotechnical engineering problems. Although the DSS test is widely used to determine soil strength, a significant challenge with the DSS device is the non-uniformity of stress and strain distributions at the specimen boundaries. This non-uniformity depends on not only the specimen size but also the size of soil particles. The influence of specimen size on boundary effects is typically evaluated using the ratio of specimen diameter (D) to height (H). The median particle diameter (D50), as an indicator of a soil's particle size, could be another influential factor affecting the non-uniformities of stress and strain on specimen boundaries in a DSS test. Through three-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) simulations, this research explores these factors. Specimens were generated with a particle size distribution (PSD) scaled from a coarse sand sample. Laboratory monotonic DSS testing results on the coarse sand were employed to calibrate the DEM model and ascertain the modeling parameters. Boundary displacements were regulated to maintain a constant-volume condition which represents undrained shearing behavior. Various specimen diameters were simulated with identical void ratios to investigate the influence of D/H on stress path, peak and post-peak shear strengths, and critical state behavior. DEM simulations allowed the generation of several particle size distributions through different scaling factors applied to the sand gradation to determine the combined effect D50 and D/H. Limiting D/H and D50/D ratios are subsequently proposed to mitigate specimen boundary effects.

Particle size significantly influences the macroscopic and microscopic responses of granular materials. The main purpose of previous works was to investigate the macroscopic response, but the influence of particle size on the evolution of microstructures is often ignored. The particle size effect becomes more complex under true triaxial stress conditions. Using the discrete-element method, a series of true triaxial numerical tests were carried out in this study to investigate the particle size effect. The mechanism of the particle size effect was elucidated from the perspective of similarity theory first. Then, the evolution of the stress and fabric for the whole, strong, and weak contact network was investigated. Meanwhile, the role played by strong and weak contacts in the particle size effect was discussed. The numerical results demonstrate that the peak stress ratio of the granular materials is enhanced as the particle size increases, which is caused by strong contacts. The peak stress ratio shows a linear relationship with particle size. The particle size effect on the strength is greater under the triaxial compression condition than under the triaxial extension condition. The proportion of sliding contacts within weak contacts gradually increases as the particle size increases. At nonaxisymmetric stress conditions, stress and fabric display noncoaxial behavior on the pi-plane, and an increase in particle size enhances the noncoaxiality, which mainly originates from the weak contacts.

In this study, the size effect on the tensile properties of compacted clay was investigated by using deep beam specimens. The equation for calculating tensile strength considering the effect of specimen thickness was established based on the results of finite element analyses. By using deep beams, Brazilian discs, and three-point bending beams, the tensile strength of compacted clay was tested to verify the rationality of deep beam specimens. Furthermore, differences in the tensile properties of deep beams of different sizes (widths of 50, 75, 100, and 125 mm) were explored. The results showed a significant size dependence of the peak load and peak displacement. As the specimen size increased, the tensile strength of the soil exhibited a linearly decreasing trend, whereas the energy required for tensile damage gradually increased. The Ba & zcaron;ant size effect model was used to predict the strengths of compacted clays, and a peak load prediction model that considers the structural parameters of the specimens was developed.

Understanding the anisotropic fracture behavior and the characteristics of the fracture process zone (FPZ) under size effects in laminated rocks, as well as its role in rock fracturing, is crucial for various engineering applications. In this study, three-point bending tests were conducted on shale specimens with varying bedding angles and sizes. The anisotropic characteristics and size effects of fracture parameters were revealed. A comparative analysis was performed on the evolutions of FPZs computed using size effect theory, digital image correlation (DIC), and linear elastic fracture mechanics. The results divulged that: (i) With increasing bedding angles, there is a noticeable decrease in apparent fracture toughness (KICA), apparent fracture energy (GICA), and nominal strength (sNu). When the bedding angle of shale is less than 45 degrees, the crack propagation and fracture parameters are mainly influenced by the matrix. Contrary, shale with bedding angles greater than 60 degrees, the crack propagation and fracture parameters are mainly controlled by the bedding. When the bedding angle is between 45 degrees and 60 degrees, the fracture propagation evolves from permeating the matrix to extending along the bedding; (ii) The fracture parameters exhibit significant size dependent behavior, as KICA and GICA rise with increasing specimen size, but sNu falls with increasing specimen sizes. The fracture parameters align with the theoretical predictions of Bazant size effect law; and (iii) The lengths of DIC-based FPZ, effective FPZ, and inelastic zone follow Wshape variations with bedding angle. The dimensionless sizes of FPZ and inelastic zone decrease with specimen size, indicating a size effect. Furthermore, there is a negative relation between KICA and the dimensionless size of the FPZ, while sNu is positively correlated to the dimensionless size of the FPZ. This highlights the essential role of the FPZ in the size effect of rock fracture. The bedding angle exerts an influence on the FPZ, subsequently affecting the anisotropic fracture and size-dependent behavior of shale. (c) 2025 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/

The application of nanoparticles (NPs) in agriculture has increased remarkably in recent years as a promising strategy for sustainable crop protection. Strategies involving the foliar use of NPs can significantly improve plant resistance to soilborne fungal diseases. NPs have been shown to be transported from leaves to roots, with potential release to the rhizosphere, although the precise mechanisms for reduced infection and damage from soilborne pathogens are complex, likely varying with disease system, nanoparticle type, and growth conditions. In this study, we investigated 100 ppm of CuO NPs of different sizes [sCuO NPs, 20-50 nm and lCuO NPs, 100 nm], along with 200 ppm of CuSO4, for potential ability to inhibit Fusarium graminearum PH-1 in an in vitro leaf bioassay, as well as an in vivo assay on wheat leaves. Three days after treatment, the Cu salt and NPs (20-50 nm) both restricted fungal growth on wheat leaves in vitro. Laser scanning confocal microscopic observations revealed that the CuO NPs (20-50 nm) inhibited F. graminearum growth by direct effects on the hyphae, spores, and conidial spore germination. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) were significantly (p <= 0.05) increased by 214.84 and 191.55 J/cm2 in the hyphae and conidia when treated with CuO NPs (20-50 nm), respectively; intracellular ROS content also increased with the treatment of the CuO NPs (100 nm), although inhibition on the conidial spore germination was limited. CuO NPs also compressed the membrane, which was different than the CuO ions-induced ROS caused cell membrane damage and apoptosis. We observed the smaller NP size (20-50 nm) had greater toxicity than the larger size (100 nm). The study demonstrates that size-dependent CuO NPs offer a promising approach for sustainable crop protection, with multiple mechanisms of pathogen control that may provide greater versatility than conventional CuO products. These findings have important implications for developing more effective and environmentally sustainable strategies to combat fungal diseases in agricultural systems, particularly for managing Fusarium head blight in wheat production.

The stability performance of the frozen curtain formed under standpipe freezing is closely associated with the weak zone penetrated by thermal gradient-related fracture (TGF). The TGF-rich zone further affects the liquid phase flow when the frozen curtain is thawed. However, there is a lack of studies on the TGF-rich zone within the frozen curtain. To address this gap, a simplified and practical 2D bonded particle model-based numerical simulation strategy was developed to identify the possibility of acquiring field characteristics of the TGF-rich zone by conducting numerical tests on samples considering size effects. The results, validated by the experiment, indicated that the influence of size on crack localization zone was comparable to that of the parameter gradient but had a weaker characteristic on crack orientation, which represents the orientation of TGF. In particular, the characterization result of the TGF-rich zone using crack localization zone in the simulation closely matched that using lateral strain localization zone both in simulation and experiment. Regarding the size effects of the TGF-rich zone revealed in the simulation, the estimated field length of the TGF-rich zone accounted for approximately 30% of the zone width characterized by a horizontal thermal gradient, with maximum orthotropic deformation occurring at about 10% of the zone width. These observations validate the existence of TGF within the frozen curtain and contribute to the development of a precise grouting technique to mitigate subsidence within soil deposits subjected to freeze-thaw.