Strength of moist sand controlled by surface tension for tectonic analogue modelling

A technique has been developed to control the strength of moistened sand in a quantifiable, accurate and reproducible way, while other mechanical properties were maintained. Strength of dry sand was increased through adding a small amount of liquid. In order to control the additional cohesion of moist sand, the influence of the surface tension of the liquid was investigated. Direct shear experiments were performed on four granular materials at confining stress levels below 1 kPa. It has been found that the surface tension of the added liquid controlled the additional apparent cohesion of sand with high accuracy. The mechanical properties of moist sand show dynamic similarity towards natural brittle rock, which enables analogue modelling of fault formation, fault reactivation and tension fracture formation in the brittle regime with a controlled strength profile. Furthermore, experimental results fit well to shear strength models. From this followed the direct proportionality of the unsaturated shear strength parameter phi(b) relative to the matrix suction, measured at low stress levels. Moreover, shear strength turned out to be also a function of grain size and the grain shape. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.