Tensile Strength of Wet Granular Materials

Abstract

RECENT correspondence^1–6 has dealt with the tensile strength of random sphere packings in the pendular range. The essential difficulty is that the cohesion between individual spheres due to the liquid bridge decreases as the liquid bridge increases in volume. All other factors being equal, the tensile strength in the pendular region should decrease slightly with increasing moisture content. Experimentally this does not occur, although recent experiments by Carr (private communication) indicate that it may, in certain circumstances. Any explanation of the experimental results has to involve one or more of the other variables