The effect of the packing density on the indentation hardness of cohesive-frictional porous materials

Natural composites in general and sedimentary rocks in particular are highly heterogeneous materials which defy a straightforward implementation of the materials science paradigm of microstructure-properties-performance correlation. The application of nanoindentation to natural composites has provided the geomechanics community with a new versatile tool to test in situ phase properties and structures of geomaterials that cannot be recapitulated ex situ in bulk form. But it requires a rigorous indentation analysis to translate indentation data into meaningful mechanical properties. The development and implementation of such an indentation analysis for the strength properties of cohesive-frictional porous materials is the focus of this thesis. We report the development and implementation of a multi-scale indentation analysis based on limit analysis, which makes it possible to infer from an experimental hardness value and the solid's packing density the strength properties of the cohesive-frictional porous material.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Cariou, Sophie, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Franz-Josef Ulm.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35494

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35494