Effects of Compaction Effort on Compaction Behavior and Particle Crushing of a Crushed Sandstone-Mudstone Particle Mixture

The present study focuses on the effects of compaction effort on the compaction behavior and particle crushing of a mixture of crushed sandstone particles and mudstone particles. Compaction tests under five different compaction efforts on the mixture were performed. Testing results indicate that the values of the maximum dry density and the average relative breakage of the mixture are nonlinearly increasing with the increase of the compaction effort, but the variation of the optimum moisture content is independent of the increase of the effort. Compared to a crushed sandstone particle mixture with the same grain size distribution and the same compaction effort, the maximum dry density of the crushed sandstone-mudstone particle mixture may be increased, the optimum moisture content reduced, and the average relative breakage during compaction reduced too, by the mixing of a small quantity of mudstone particles.