Modeling the Effect of Mineral Particles of Mixture of Sandy Soil on Its Physical–Mechanical Properties Based on the Triangular Nomogram

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors, my comments are as follows:

Line 19 - 20: sentence unclear. " to describe and analysis the change". Did you mean the analysis of friction angle of soil mixtures?

Line 21: this is nothing new and has been documented previously

Line 29: multi-phase is more than enough. Also, would suggest to omit "dynamic system"

Line 33: "we found that" - unnecessary 

Line 67: please write in passive; do not use "we"

Line 73: sentence is unclear. What are you trying to say.

Line 92: Can you please clarify how did you select the particles from 0.06 - 0.03mm? This is somewhat impossible. There is a limit in particle size depending on the norm but the limit is higher than the values you suggested.

Line 104: Table 1 is missing a caption

Line 105: Why direct shear test? The test and device has its limitations. Can you clarify how is that affecting your research.

Figure 2: what is what on the figure. The figure has to be captioned properly. I assume fig 2a are the mixtures according to table 1 but what is in the fig 2b, maximum density.

Line 134 - 137: This is logical, especially from the geotechnical point of view, and nothing new. Everything is defined based on the effective particle size.

Line 138 - 145: this is due to void ratio which you forgot to include. Void ratio changes with the change of particle size and mixtures regarding the skeleton particles 4-2mm. Friction angle is highly affected by void ratio.

Line 177: It is not quite clear why did you perform analysis of the particle shape. From the analysis I can see that you obtained the roundness of the particle but you only compared it to the diameter of soil particles. It would be beneficial if you would compared it with some other properties, although it is questionable how can you compare the "sand" particle with "clay" particle. Also worth mentioning, you forgot to mentioned another crucial factor and that is sphericity, which also has significant contribution to soil strength, that is, if you want to show that.

Line 223: No, they do not work as "lubricant" they are only floating in the mass of finer particles.

Line 236: I would not say it is a new method, it is rather a different way to present the influence  of filler on the friction angle. 

Line 241-244: you did not find that out, that is well known fact

Author Response

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Simulation the effect of mineral particle of mixture sandy soil on its Physical - Mechanical Properties based on the Triangular Nomogram” (ID: minerals-1541894). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments，please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript make use of the interesting monogram analysis method besides SEM images to answer on the nature most complex questions: how does the micro-scale properties of soil (e.g., particle size and size distribution, morphology, etc.) influence its macro-scale properties (e.g., shear strength).  I praise the authors for tackling this complex problem. The manuscript is overall brief/precise in its analysis/methodologies and results/conclusions.  Here are some recommendations to enhance the manuscript:

Consider revising title. “Simulation” is usually followed by “of”. Consider changing “Simulation” to “Simulating” or “Modelling”.

Line 108-109: “we measured the maximum dry density of 108 each sample by vibration hammer method three times”. Is this the same as ASTM D 4253-00 ? If yes, refer to the ASTM.

Figure 2: is the isoline plot guaranteed to be unique or two people may draw them differently? Also, can those isolines intersect? I recommend elaborating more in the manuscript on the requirements/provisions/steps to plot those isolines?

Conclusions: I suggest adding any limitations of the nomogram analysis method to motivate future work. Examples: does the analysis method fail when analyzing 1 skeleton particles with 3+ fillers? Is the analysis method programed/coded to plot the isolines and interpret results (e.g., peak red) or need to be done by hand?

I recommend changing the term “mixture soils” to “soil mixtures” throughout the manuscript.

 

Author Response

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Simulation the effect of mineral particle of mixture sandy soil on its Physical - Mechanical Properties based on the Triangular Nomogram” (ID: minerals-1541894). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments，please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

Paper looks better now, although it still has some parts that need a bit deeper research.

With kind regards