Application of particle image velocimetry (PIV) to measure the displacement of sandy soil in laboratory

Abstract

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) has been heavily used to measure the displacement and flow velocity in fluid mechanics. However, applications of this method to determining soil displacement in geotechnical laboratory tests are rare. This paper aims to verify the applicability of this method in determining the displacement of sandy soil under different saturation conditions and soil grain sizes. The results showed that this method could effectively determine soil displacement with an accuracy of 0.13 mm. Furthermore, the degree of saturation of soil did not influence the PIV results whereas the homogeneity of soil, as indicated by grain size distribution, reduced the precision of the PIV method.