Consolidation and permeability of transparent amorphous silica

The consolidation and permeability of transparent amorphous silica are studied in this paper. Transparency is achieved by matching the refractive indices of the amorphous silica particles and the pore fluid. The fundamental premise of this research is that transparent synthetic soils made of amorphous silica can be used in model tests to study three-dimensional deformation and flow problems, using nonintrusive optical visualization techniques, if amorphous silica can be produced with geotechnical properties similar to natural soils. The amorphous silicas studied in this paper exhibit consolidation behavior similar to that of organic clays and peat. The permeability of the material falls within the range typically reported for clays and peats.