Study on Fractal Theory in Identifing Soil Fabric in Civil Engineering

Soil fabric describes the arrangement, shape, size, and size distribution of the mineral constituents of a soil. On a small scale, the soil micro-fabric can be studied by looking at undisturbed samples under a scanning electron microscope or it can be described under high-resolution optical microscope in thin section. Different kinds of soil fabrics indicated different sedimentary environments under which the soils formed before; also it could show the information of different property and distinct material composition of soils. Engineering properties of soil were connected tightly with its structure and fabric. In geo-technique science, there existed many methods to describe the soil's structure and fabric. It has been proved that fractal dimension and multi-fractal theory are efficient way in the studying of soil's fabric. With the help of fractal dimension and multi-fractal spectrum, efforts were taken to analyze the micro-porous structural features in great overburden clay. The study shows that fractal dimension can distinguish the fine difference between the two type of soil such as undisturbed soil sample and dry shrinkage soil sample. The multi-fractal spectrum of these two kinds of soil showed the same conclusion.