Void Sizes in Granular Soils

Abstract

In an earlier paper, the writer presented a simple stochastic model of the grain and pore structure in cohesionless soils and similar materials. Equations that very adequately predict the void ratio as a function of grain-size distribution were derived. In this technical note, the stochastic model is used to find the distribution of void volume as a function of void size (void-chord length). An evaluation of laboratory tests shows that both the bubbling pressure of a soil and the size of the largest grain that can pass through the voids of a soil in a base-filter compatibility test can be correlated with the calculated mean void chord of the soil.