Rapid Penetration into Granular Media: Visualizing the Fundamental Physics of Rapid Earth Penetration

York

Chapter 1

Introduction

Magued Iskander; Stephan Bless; Mehdi Omidvar    New York University, USA

Abstract

Over the past half century there has been consistent interest in the study of rapid penetration into granular media. A wealth of literature has appeared on the subject, as well as on high strain-rate behavior of soils. However, at different times, the problem has been studied by different disciplines within the science and engineering fields, and there is a lack of consistency and generality in addressing the various phenomena associated with the problem. This book provides a comprehensive review of the literature on high strain-rate behavior of sand, as well as on physics of rapid penetration into granular media. Interest in penetration in granular media has been reinvigorated in the past few years with significant research expenditures on visualization of the fundamental physics of rapid penetration. This book gathers important recent findings on rapid penetration into granular materials from prominent research groups in the United States and Europe, which will serve as a reference framework for future research in this area. The large community of physicists, geotechnical and petroleum engineers, ballistic experts, and other researchers from several other disciplines will benefit from the content of the book. In particular, researchers will find the collection of recently developed visualization techniques applied to rapid penetration of earth materials introduced in this book beneficial in future endeavors. Practicing physicists and engineers as well as ballistic and military experts will find the extensive observations and analyses presented in this book useful in developing predictive models.

Keywords

Sand

Granular

Physics

Interaction

Penetration

Projectile

Intruder

Ballistic

Visual

Visualization

Nonintrusive

MRI

CAT scan

X-ray

Neutron

Imaging

Contents

1. Background   1

2. Objectives and Scope   2

3. Organization of This Book   3

3.1 Introductory chapters   4

3.2 Conventional approaches for visualization of traveling projectiles   5

3.3 Noncontact diagnostics for visualization of traveling projectiles   6

3.4 Soil surrogates for visualization of traveling projectiles   7

4. Concluding Remarks   8

1 Background

Creation of this book has been motivated by the recent surge of publications applying novel experimental techniques to a topic that has been of engineering importance for centuries—rapid penetration of granular materials. Military interests include penetration into the ground as well as design of fortifications. Geotechnical and geophysical interests include the extremes of drilling for resource extraction, pile driving, design of anchors, and probing of in situ mechanical properties. Study of impact craters can provide critical information regarding the historical evolution of planets and reveal material properties of granular beds. There are many other phenomena that involve rapid response of granular materials, including animal and machine locomotion, explosive excavation, and a great many industrial processes involving transport and compaction of powders and particles.

The present work attempts to bridge the chasm between engineering and physics in an effort to advance understanding of the granular penetration problem. A wealth of literature on rapid penetration into granular media spans a number of disciplines including geotechnical engineering, soft matter physics, engineering geology, ballistics, petroleum engineering, and aerospace engineering. However, at different times, scientists and engineers working in different fields have approached the problem differently. The engineering approach has been based mainly on empirical and semi-empirical relationships backed by extensive experimentation. Physicists’ perspective of granular penetration is faithful to well-established principles, but is at times highly idealized. Over the past half century, treatment of the problem has evolved from one of empirical nature to semi-empirical models based on experimentally verified phenomenology. More recently, attention has shifted from macroscale observations to exploration of underlying meso- and microscale interactions. This volume documents studies of historical significance in the field and presents results of recent insights gained from advanced visualization techniques. The book is unique in that it combines the physics and engineering perspectives, and uses terminology that is accessible to both disciplines.

This book presents the state of the science on the subject of granular penetration, with a particular focus on describing various techniques to visualize the phenomenon. Scientists and engineers from leading institutions including New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, Duke University, Yale University, California Institute of Technology, Cambridge College, Imperial College, University of Maryland, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Purdue University, Marquette University, and University of California-Los Angeles joined together to present current experimental techniques available to study the problem as well as summaries of their findings. The authors believe that this consolidated compilation will serve as the definitive reference on the state of science for researchers and practitioners interested in penetration into granular materials.

2 Objectives and Scope

This book compiles the findings of recent research endeavors on the interaction of projectiles and granular media. The book outlines the fundamental physics of rapid penetration and assembles a comprehensive collection of experimental and numerical methods to study the problem. An important feature of the book is that it describes the variety of methods developed to visualize rapid penetration into granular media.

There is currently no single document that compiles all the concepts relevant to rapid penetration into granular media. Much of the work is accessible through government reports and technical journals; none of which specialize in rapid penetration into granular media and some of which are often difficult to collect.

The authors believe that this book bridges the knowledge produced from different disciplines of science and engineering dealing with rapid penetration into granular media by:

• presenting a comprehensive interdisciplinary review of the available literature;

• combining the experience of prominent researchers from different disciplines interested in studying the problem;

• introducing recently developed methods for visualizing the fundamental physics of rapid penetration intro granular media;

• presenting recent data from experimental, analytical, and numerical studies on rapid penetration into granular media; and

• employing terminology that is accessible to both engineers and physicists.

The scope of the work encompasses intruders penetrating at velocities ranging from 1 to 500 m/s. A variety of natural and synthetic soil surrogates have been employed. However, primary focus has been on investigating the behavior of natural sand.

The authors hope that this book will serve as a useful reference for scientists and engineers in the fields of earth and planetary science, ballistics, soft matter physics, physics of granular media, geotechnical engineering, engineering geology, as well as industry professionals in ballistics, petroleum engineering, and aerospace engineering. The work does not attempt, in any way, to investigate agricultural or biological penetration into soils.

3 Organization of This Book

For this book, the authors have contributed nearly half of the chapters and invited leading scientists and engineers to contribute the remaining chapters. These contributors were selected because they are pioneering advanced visualization techniques and have successfully employed them to reveal granular interactions provoked by dynamic penetration.

The behavior of granular materials can be studied on a number of interrelated scales. Although the macro or continuum scale is the scale of primary interest for practical engineering applications, behavior of the continuum is decidedly influenced by physical phenomena that occur at underlying scales. The structural properties of individual soil particles, as well as intergranular kinetics and kinematics are governed at the microscale. Granular interactions such as rotation, translation, and particle damage are significant phenomena at this scale. Collective behavior including rearrangement, dilation, strain localization, and formation and buckling of force chains takes place at an intermediate scale, referred to as the mesoscale.

Previously, penetration theories were limited to empirical models or phenomenological models that assume an underlying phenomenology and demanded general, predominantly global scale, observations of penetration events. Visualization of complex interactions was limited to quarter-space tests and limited X-ray radiography, with technological restrictions that resulted in low temporal and spatial resolution. Other means of obtaining data regarding soil-projectile interactions included employment of color-coded granular media, with careful postmortem analysis of the dissected target. These tests, while useful in revealing cavity dimensions and clarifying energy partitioning of the penetration event, could not describe the time evolution of interactions. Despite these limitations, however, a wealth of knowledge has resulted from these early studies.

In recent years, the advent of advanced computational resources, coupled with emerging theoretical developments, have necessitated meso- and macroscale observations to justify, and facilitate, theoretical assumptions. As a result, techniques and methods to visualize soil-projectile and granular interactions during rapid penetration into granular media have shifted from quarter-space tests and macroscale penetration time history measurements to the use of emerging noninvasive diagnostic techniques. The methods described in this book begin with conventional approaches described above, followed by nonintrusive diagnostic methods adapted from the medical field, such as radiography and flash X-ray radiography. Finally, soil surrogates are introduced to nonintrusively observe granular motion and infer contact stresses during penetration at time scales relevant to meso- and microscale responses. Examples of visualization techniques employed in this book to study rapid penetration in granular media are shown in Figure 1. The chapters are organized as follows:

Figure 1 Examples of visualization techniques presented in the book: (a) flash X-ray tomography to visualize dynamic fracture of sand ( Chapter 3 ); (b) scanning electron microscope view of false cone from penetration into crushable sand ( Chapter 5 ); (c) quarter-space visualization of projectile penetration in sand ( Chapter 6 ); (d) high-resolution neutron image of sand target prior to impact ( Chapter 8 ); (e) flash X-ray radiography to visualize high-speed rod penetration in sand ( Chapter 7 ); (f) granular element method and DIC to visualize force chains in penetration into granular media ( Chapter 9 ); (g) refractive index matched scanning to visualize penetration in soil surrogates ( Chapter 11 ); (h) force chains visualized during penetration into photoelastic granular media ( Chapter 10 ); and (i) long rod penetration visualized using transparent sand surrogate ( Chapter 12 ).

3.1 Introductory chapters

To set the stage, the book begins with a review of our understanding of dynamic behavior of natural and synthetic granular media in Chapter 2. In addition to facilitating deeper understanding of the mechanics of material response relevant to penetration, the review ties the study of the constitutive properties of granular media to rapid penetration tests. Next, the most recent work on high strain-rate micromechanical behavior of sand learned from multiscale Kolsky bar experiments is summarized in Chapter 3. This work highlights the importance of failure and fracture of sand grains in understanding multiscale response.

In order to provide the context for current research, the book also includes a review of the state of knowledge of penetration mechanics of granular materials in Chapter 4. The chapter summarizes the large body of empirical data as well as insights gained from recent theoretical developments in penetration into granular media. Significant findings of experimental studies, as well as theoretical frameworks of penetration mechanics are covered in the chapter, along with more recent emerging theories and phenomenological insights. Available evidence suggests that regardless of the macroscopic phenomena, penetration resistance is ultimately governed by micro- and mesoscale processes, including cavity expansion, compaction/dilation-induced pressure volume work, particle crushing, and strain localization. For example, it is known that stresses are communicated into granular material through force chains, and on a mesoscale, force chain geometry is highly transitory. Normal stresses at high velocities are mainly due to the inertial resistance from grains that must be pushed aside to accommodate passage of the penetrator. This process is affected by grain fracture above a critical velocity that depends on grain properties. It is known that shear stresses also play a dominant role below a critical velocity, and they arise mainly from interparticle friction. The presence of a saturating fluid also affects penetration in a nontrivial manner. The formation of a false nose composed of finely crushed sand appears to affect the role of nose shape in penetration dynamics. These concepts, along with other multiscale phenomena related to projectile penetration in granular media are covered in Chapter 4.

3.2 Conventional approaches for visualization of traveling projectiles

Two conventional approaches are employed to probe the behavior of intruders into natural soil. The first is through the use of high-speed imaging of long rods to track their motion by means of surveying markings on the rod, and an attached follower, during penetration. Alternatively, photonic Doppler velocimetry was used to obtain highly resolved velocity time histories. The second method is to employ quarter-space tests coupled with advanced high-speed imaging techniques.

The global observations and postmortem analysis of a variety of penetration events described in Chapter 5 demonstrate that there are still gaps in our understanding of rapid penetration of granular materials. Unifying theoretical frameworks of penetration are either lacking or they neglect the role of important micro- and mesoscale phenomena during rapid penetration. Furthermore, these models are often calibrated for a limited parameter space and cannot be extrapolated to enable prediction and design. There is limited understanding, at a quantitative level, of the relative roles of mesoscale processes. This includes important questions concerning the microscale origins of transitions and instabilities in penetration regimes, and the interactions between finely crushed material and intact grains.

The recent use of quarter-space ballistic tests combined with high-speed photography has been quite fruitful. The technique is described in Chapter 6. These experiments have shed light onto important penetration transients, including zones of fracture ahead of the penetrator and cavity evolution during penetration. Granular kinematics recorded through an observation window have been analyzed using digital image correlation (DIC). All DIC techniques involve correlations of patterns observed at different states of deformation in order to determine displacements. It has been said that the suite of technologies associated with DIC represents a paradigm shift in which the experimentalist can now record data for material response in detail that is commensurate with numerical modeling. Theoretical and practical discussions of DIC techniques can be found in Chapters 6 and 12 of this book.

DIC has also been used to compute the strain within individual grains. Using the techniques in Chapter 9, the strain fields have been inverted to compute contact force networks, an example of which is shown in Figure 2. Additionally, DIC has been used, in quarter-space experiments, to compute microscopic velocity fields driven into the target by high-speed penetrating projectiles.

3.3 Noncontact diagnostics for visualization of traveling projectiles

Natural soils are opaque to visible light, so the only way to visualize internal deformations and flow paths within them is through expensive medical apparatus such as X-rays, computerized tomography (CT Scan or CAT scan), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and neutron imaging. Chapters 7 and 8 explore the use of penetrating radiation to examine in situ response of materials during penetration. Flash X-ray radiography is used to track tracer particles, as demonstrated in Chapter 7. Particles are embedded within a plane, and the result is deformation within that plane, similar to that obtainable with transparent soils, but now using natural geologic media. Flash X-ray radiography has been used in conjunction with DIC to evaluate nose shape effects during impact and penetration into natural soil targets, as discussed in Chapter 7.

Higher resolution can be obtained regarding the granular assembly as well as the pore space using neutron imaging. Neutron imaging can also be used to differentiate between air and water within the pore space. Further information such as the extent of damage and changes in pore space can be visualized from these tests. Recent developments of neutron imaging applied to postmortem analysis of natural soil samples penetrated at ultrasonic impact velocities are described in Chapter 8.

3.4 Soil surrogates for visualization of traveling projectiles

Soil surrogates have been employed in Chapters 9–12 to investigate meso- and microscale phenomena occurring during penetration. The use of a soil surrogate raises some concerns about how well the surrogate represents natural soils, particularly with respect to microscopic level phenomena such as interlocking and fracture of particles. However, surrogates permit measurements that are not otherwise feasible, as follows:

In Chapter 9, the connection between macroscopic and microscopic behavior during low-velocity impact into granular media is explored. Measurement of interparticle forces in opaque granular materials is achieved using a technique, referred to as the granular element method (GEM). GEM operates by relating interparticle forces to grain kinematics and stresses. Positions, contact points, and accelerations can be obtained using particle tracking algorithms along with high-speed photography. Average intragrain stresses are calculated by first computing the intragrain strain using DIC. Separate measurement of a constitutive law for the grain material at appropriate strain rates then allows the computation of average intragrain stresses. The method provides the capability to quantify dynamic interparticle force measurements in opaque, arbitrarily shaped grains. In Chapter 9, the technique is applied to the study of granular-projectile interactions during penetration into 2D soil surrogates made of polyurethane disks having a diameter of 25-32 mm, and intruders at impact velocities in the range of 2-3 m/s. While current experimental techniques do not yet permit surrogates representative of natural soil scales or full-field intraparticle strain measurements in 3D, ongoing developments may eventually make this feasible.

In Chapter 10, microstructure evolution is investigated during impact using refractive index-matched glass beads. A technique called refractive index matched scanning (RIMS) is employed where grains are suspended in an index-matched fluid that is doped with a fluorescent dye. RIMS was demonstrated in a 150-mm cubic bed comprising 3 mm randomly packed glass beads and an intruder penetrating at 1-4 m/s. Laser illumination permitted visualizing the motions of individual grains and their cooperation in granular flows. Details of the method are described in Chapter 10, along with insights gained from impact and penetration tests. For example, the method is used to demonstrate the extent of granular heterogeneity during penetration, through characterizing granular interactions into affine and nonaffine motion. Further insights into the role of friction are also presented by impacting prestrained granular assemblies.

Photoelastic techniques, applied for many years to plane stress configurations, were employed in Chapter 11 to observe force chains during impact. The method employs a variety of photoelastic polymeric disks, to represent soil continua, having diameters on the order of several millimeters. The disks are sandwiched between two transparent observation windows. The media is impacted at velocities on the order of a few m/s. The intensity of the photoelastic images obtained using high-speed photography is then used to resolve the spatial and temporal evolution of force structures. Observations and calculations demonstrate that inertial drag arises from intermittent collisions with force-chain-like structures. The method is used to visualize fascinating fluctuating webs of contacts emanating from the penetrator-target interface. The observations were employed to develop a dynamic collisional model to describe energy dissipation during penetration into granular media.

Another experimental development that supported progress in study of high-speed penetration is the creation of transparent surrogates for granular materials. These are described in Chapter 12. Transparent soils are formulated by mixing transparent particles with a liquid of the same refractive index, similar to the methods described in Chapter 10. For example, a system widely used as a sand surrogate is made by mixing crushed fused quartz with a blend of mineral oils. Packing density can be controlled by agitation. These materials have been shown in conventional geotechnical tests to have the same rheology as opaque assemblages of natural grains, but their transparency enables in situ measurements. Interior planes are observed by providing illumination in a thin plane by means of a planar laser beam. Another option is to embed an array of dyed particles within a thin section to help provide photographable features in the image plane. Hence in one way or another, a speckle pattern is produced that originates from an interior plane of a specimen. Advanced optical techniques and DIC have been deployed to observe and analyze the speckle patterns. Meso scale observations and insights from these tests, reported in Chapter 12, shed light on the temporal evolution of kinematic fields during rapid penetration in frictional granular media (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Examples of results from analysis of visualization methods shown in Figure 1 : (a) particle fracture under dynamic loading ( Chapter 3 ); (b) cushioning effect in comminution due to rapid projectile penetration in crushable sand ( Chapter 5 ); (c) displacement vectors from DIC analysis of rapid penetration in sand ( Chapter 6 ); (d) postmortem analysis of projectile penetration in sand using neutron imaging ( Chapter 8 ); (e) longitudinal displacements during long rod penetration in sand using flash X-ray radiography and DIC ( Chapter 7 ); (f) force chain visualized using granular element method ( Chapter 9 ); (g) nonaffine granular motion as function of target prestraining, visualized using refractive index matched scanning ( Chapter 11 ); (h) effect of nose shape on force chain distribution during penetration into granular media ( Chapter 10 ); and (i) shear and volumetric strains during long rod penetration in transparent soils ( Chapter 12 ).

4 Concluding Remarks

The methods described in this book have produced a wealth of knowledge in penetration dynamics, granular and granular-intruder interactions at a multiscale level, spanning from the global macroscale to the subgrain level. These unique experimental observations are concurrent with progress in numerical and analytical modeling of dynamic granular interactions. The confluence of these new experimental and numerical modeling techniques has set the stage for significant progress in our understanding of granular materials, in general, and their response to penetration, in particular. We hope that the present volume will be a useful catalyst.

Chapter 2

Behavior of Granular Media Under High Strain-Rate Loading

Magued Iskander; Mehdi Omidvar; Stephan Bless    New York University, USA

Abstract

Understanding of the high-strain-rate (HSR) behavior of granular media is an imperative aspect of the fundamental physics of rapid penetration in these materials. The global response of granular media to rapid monotonic loading has conventionally been studied using modified geotechnical apparatus and other setups adapted from HSR testing of engineered materials. More recently, in realization of the role of finer scales in the global response, pioneering tests have been devised to explore these underlying scales. A wealth of knowledge has accumulated from these studies. In this chapter, a review of the response of sand under HSR loading is presented. The response observed in HSR uniaxial compression tests, split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) tests, and triaxial tests is investigated. The effects of strain rate, initial void ratio, confining pressure, saturation, shape, and size of grains, along with grain mineralogy on the global scale, as well as the finer underlying scales, are discussed. A brief summary of the response of sand to shock loading is also presented. The review is aimed to serve as an introduction to the following chapters, which explore the response of granular media to rapid penetration.

Keywords

Sand

Granular

Dynamic response

Impact

Uniaxial compression

Split Hopkinson pressure bar

Dynamic triaxial test

Contents

1. Introduction   12

2. Behavior of Sand Under Quasistatic Loading   12

2.1 Uniaxial response   13

2.2 Triaxial response   15

3. Testing of Sand for HSR Behavior   19

4. HSR Uniaxial Compression (Oedometer) Tests   22

4.1 Wave propagation effects   22

4.2 HSR effects on confined modulus   24

4.3 Effect of saturation   27

5. SHPB Test   28

5.1 Background   28

5.2 Stress uniformity in SHPB tests   30

5.3 Effect of lateral confinement   31

5.4 Grain fracture   34

5.5 Particle-scale tests   36

5.6 Effect of saturation   38

5.7 Strain rate effects   40

6. HSR Triaxial Shear Test   41

6.1 General comments   41

6.2 Sample size and inertial effects   43

6.3 Shear strength under HSR loading   44

6.4 Effect of saturation   49

6.5 Modulus and strain to failure   49

6.6 Shear band formation   50

7. Shock Wave Tests   51

8. Summary and Conclusions   55

Acknowledgments  56

References  56

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) grant no. HDTRA1-10-1-0049 and National Science Foundation (NSF) grant DGE 0741714.

1 Introduction

An important aspect of impact and penetration into granular media is the behavior of these materials under the high strain-rate (HSR) loading associated with the transient and steady-state processes involved in a penetration event. Considerable research has been devoted over the past sixty years to the characterization of granular media under HSR loading. As the rate of loading increases beyond the quasistatic regime, inertial forces are generated. At the macroscale, rate effects are manifested as enhancements in mechanical properties, including stiffness and strength. At the particle scale, the change in interparticle forces can lead to particle damage, thereby further affecting energy dissipation during penetration. Chains of particles participate in resistance to loads, and the nature of load transfer along these networks of forced particles is affected by the rate of loading.

HSR response of granular media has traditionally been studied at the macroscale, under controlled laboratory testing, in the form of uniaxial compression, direct shear and triaxial compression tests or in the form of wave propagation tests. Constitutive models have also been developed that can predict certain aspects of HSR loading. More recently, laboratory tests and numerical models have been developed to explore aspects of meso- and microscale response. These studies confirm that at the mesoscale, self-organized patterns such as shear banding and formation and buckling of force chains are affected by the rate of loading. Moreover, at the microscale, phenomena such as fragmentation and comminution (pulverization) are linked to the macroscopic loading rate. Collectively, these studies point to the significance of loading rate in the response of granular media.

In this chapter, a review of the literature on HSR loading of granular media is presented, with emphasis on sand. Results of modified geotechnical tests as well as dynamic tests conventionally used to characterize engineered materials are discussed. The tests covered include uniaxial and triaxial compression, split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB), and plate impact tests. Results of these tests are summarized, in order to provide a deeper understanding of the response of granular media to HSR loading. The reader is referred to Suescun-Florez et al. (2015) for a review of high strain rate testing equipment and techniques for granular media. The organization of this chapter is as follows. First, global behavior of sand under quasistatic loading is summarized, to serve as a benchmark for the study of HSR behavior. Next, HSR response is discussed in terms of insights gained from results of uniaxial, triaxial, SHPB, and plate impact tests.

2 Behavior of Sand Under Quasistatic Loading

In order to investigate the effects of HSR loading on sand, it is desirable to first identify the factors that contribute to the quasistatic response. The behavior of sand is typically studied under uniaxial or triaxial conditions.

2.1 Uniaxial response

Typical quasistatic stress-strain response of dry sand under uniaxial (confined) compression over a wide range of stress levels is schematically illustrated in Figure 1, noting that compressive stress is taken as positive in accordance with soil mechanics conventions. In a uniaxial test, a sample of sand is compressed axially, while lateral strains are prohibited. There are three main mechanisms governing the response of sand in uniaxial compression: (1) elastic compression of individual sand grains, (2) slippage and rearrangement of grains, and (3) grain crushing. The three mechanisms occur at different threshold stresses, and four distinct regions may be identified in the response based on the governing mechanism (Whitman, 1970):

Figure 1 Stress-strain response of dry sand in static uniaxial strain loading. (Redrawn as per Whitman (1970)).

• Zone 1: The axial stress level applied in this region is not enough to overcome the friction between individual sand grains. Stress-strain response in this initial region is elastic, corresponding to the elastic deformation of individual grains.

• Zone 2: At a threshold range of stresses, the applied axial stress exceeds the static friction between sand grains, and the soil skeleton deforms as the grains slide and roll into the voids. The stress-strain behavior in this region is inelastic corresponding to the yielding of the soil skeleton. In metals, yield may result in irreversible shear strain but no change in density. However, in soils, deformation of the skeleton results in both shear deformation and volumetric strain (Meyers, 1994).

• Zone 3: Rearrangement of sand grains into the voids results in a denser arrangement, thereby increasing contact points between the soil grains. Sliding and rolling become more difficult, and a hardening response is observed as the particles lock up into a denser arrangement.

• Zone 4: At high stress levels, individual grains begin to crush, allowing the skeleton to contract further, thereby reducing resistance to compression. This yielding behavior results in an even denser arrangement of particles, and the response eventually shifts once again to a lockup behavior.

The response of sand in uniaxial compression may be quantified in terms of the constrained modulus, that is, the slope of the one-dimensional stress-strain curve at a given strain. There are several factors that affect the stress-strain response:

- Applied stress level: The uniaxial response of sand may exhibit a yielding behavior or a lockup behavior in stress-controlled tests, depending on the magnitude of the applied stress. At lower applied stress levels, a yielding behavior is observed. As the load is incremented to higher stress levels, a lockup response may occur (Hendron, 1963; Akers, 2001). The compressibility of quartz sand, defined as the inverse of the constrained modulus, decreases as vertical effective stress is increased up to 14.7 MPa, attributed to continuous rearrangement and packing of sand particles into denser arrangement (De Beer, 1963). At higher stress levels, compressibility increases due to rearrangement of grains facilitated by grain crushing. Compressibility eventually decreases again at higher pressures (~ 34.4 MPa), reasonably attributed to the lockup of particles following crushing and rearrangement into denser arrangement, as indicated in Figure