The Use of Empirical Methods for Testing Granular Materials in Analogue Modelling

The behaviour of a granular material is mainly dependent on its frictional properties,angle of internal friction, and cohesion, which, together with material density, are the key factors tobe considered during the scaling procedure of analogue models. The frictional properties of agranular material are usually investigated by means of technical instruments such as a Hubbert-typeapparatus and ring shear testers, which allow for investigating the response of the tested materialto a wide range of applied stresses. Here we explore the possibility to determine material propertiesby means of different empirical methods applied to mixtures of quartz and K-feldspar sand.Empirical methods exhibit the great advantage of measuring the properties of a certain analoguematerial under the experimental conditions, which are strongly sensitive to the handling techniques.Finally, the results obtained from the empirical methods have been compared with ring shear testscarried out on the same materials, which show a satisfactory agreement with those determinedempirically.