New Criterion for Shutter Designing by Dry Pluviation Method
Abstract Dry pluviation is a technique applied for preparation of sandy soil samples for physical modeling. In this method, soil particles rainfall in the mold after passing through the mesh with certain opening sizes. In this study, a dry pluviation device was designed and manufactured to examine the effect of shutter properties including the hight of fall (HF), deposition intensity (DI), and gradation on relative density (RD). The results indicate that HF and DI have a direct and indirect relation with RD, respectively, but RD is constant for HF ≥ 1200 mm. In order to investigate the impact of shutter properties on DI and RD, α ratio (total area of the shutter holes to the area of the deposition surface) was defined and a linear relationship is proposed between DI and α. The results revealed an indirect relation between RD and α, but for α ≥ 0.130 RD is constant. In order to assess the simultaneous effect of grain size and shutter properties on RD, an independent grain size variable (i.e., α/D50) was defined and a linear relationship was established between α/D50 and RD. The results showed that the variable α/D50 can be considered as a useful criterion for designing a shutter to reconstitute sandy soils with different gradations.