内容简介：
Particle size distributions (PSDs) in soil are normally characterised and described on the basis of individual particle diameters (i.e.D50, Cu and Cc). Although these conventional methods are useful for soil classification purposes, they provide an incomplete “picture” about the influence of particles sizes and ranges on geotechnical properties. The influence of fines content on liquefaction resistance and small strain stiffness and the need of additional parameters to quantify breakage process(i.e. breakage index, Hardin’s parameter) are examples that demonstrate the lack of information provided by parameters such as D50 and Cu. This presentation explores alternative descriptors for particle size distributions and assesses their suitability to relate and physically explain their effect on various geotechnical properties, including susceptibility to liquefaction, particle breakage, internal erosion and mineral dissolution, amongst others. It is then demonstrated that the statistical concepts that accurately describe PSDs may be also use to describe other significant distributions in granular materials, such as the magnitude of inter-particle contact forces routinely quantified in DEM simulations.