I-Corps: Soil Fines Content Measuring Device

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种设备，以准确地测量现场的细粉含量。所提出的技术旨在岩土工程行业减少传统实验室测试方法的时间和成本。 土壤中细粒的数量往往控制着地质构造的微观行为和宏观响应。岩土工程中广泛的应用可能会受到土壤中细颗粒物质的影响，例如，地基设计、土结构渗流分析、井介电常数评估、取土场材料适用性和地基液化潜力。因此，土的类型及其基本特性的现场识别在岩土工程中具有十分重要的意义。 拟议的设备是一种便携式、低成本的解决方案，可提供实时数据，从而在现场调查期间做出更快、更有效的决策。本研究包括土壤粒径分布之资料分析与解释，将有助于工程厂商、材料测试业者、管制机构、环境监测机构等。所提出的技术可以帮助现场调查和环境监测的效率，准确性和成本效益。这将最终提高基础设施项目和环境管理的质量和安全性，I-Corps的这一项目是基于开发一种技术，通过测量粗粒和细粒土壤部分的相对体积，评估估计土壤中细粒含量的原则。目前，对于土壤特性的评估，需要主要包括粒度分析的广泛的实验室测试。开发并测试了一种专用设备，将所提出的基于体积的测量细粒的原理与标准样品洗涤方法进行比较，以验证测量结果。 研究表明，该装置提供了± 5的高精度，并表明该装置在测量土壤中的细粒含量方面具有可比性。此外，与需要几个小时才能完成的标准洗涤测试的结果相比，发现所提出的设备具有时间效率，需要5到15分钟才能完成。建议的设备的体积为基础的原则可能会减少对广泛的实验室测试的需要，减少对传统测试方法的依赖，并在现场提供快速的结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a device to accurately measure fines content in the field. The proposed technology is aimed at the geotechnical engineering industry to reduce the time and cost of traditional laboratory testing methods. The amount of fines in soils often controls the microscopic behavior as well as the macro response of geologic formations. A wide spectrum of applications in geotechnical engineering can be appreciably affected by the presence of fine material in soils, e.g., foundation design, seepage analyses for earth structures, evaluation of well permittivity, material suitability for borrow sites, and liquefaction potential of foundations. Therefore, field identification of soil types and their basic characteristics is of great importance in geotechnical engineering. The proposed device is a portable, low-cost solution to provide real-time data, allowing faster and more efficient decision-making during site investigations. Data analysis and interpretation of the soil particle size distribution is included do, which will be helpful to engineering firms, material testing businesses, regulatory organizations, and environmental monitoring organizations. The proposed technology may help site investigation and environmental monitoring efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness. This will ultimately result in higher quality and safety for infrastructure projects and environmental management.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a technology to assess the principle of estimating fines in soil content by measuring relative volumes of coarse-grained to fine-grained soil fractions. Currently, for evaluation of soil characteristics, extensive laboratory testing comprised primarily of grain size analysis is needed. A dedicated device was developed and tested comparing the proposed volume-based principle to measure fines to the standard sample washing methods to verify the measurements. The study indicated the device provided high accuracy of ± 5 and showed that the device is comparable for measuring fines content in soils. In addition, compared with the results of the standard wash tests that take a few hours to perform, the proposed device was found to be time efficient, taking 5 to 15 minutes to complete. The proposed device's volume-based principle may reduce the need for extensive laboratory testing, reducing reliance on traditional testing methods and providing rapid results in the field.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.