Factors that influence the terminal grading of sands

Earlier research found that for a carbonate sand shearing to extremely large strains allowed the soil to reach a stable grading; findings also reported by others for a limited range of sands, typically sedimentary and often weak grained. This paper describes similar tests on a soil of very different geological origin, a weathered soil, that confirms similar patterns of behaviour. Tests investigating factors affecting the final grading for both soils indicated small effects of shearing velocity but significant effects of the initial grading, highlighting that the final fractal dimension is not a constant.