ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the microscopic modeling of particulate soil structure and pore structure for coarse-grained soil. The microscopic state of the volcanic ash called “Shirasu” in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan; this is from a photo taken by Haruyama using an optical microscope. There are several apparatuses used to examine the pore structure directly, such as the scanning electron microscope, the mercury intrusion porosimeter, and so on. The elementary particulate model (EPM) is the microscopic model for pore structure of coarse-grained soil. The probabilistic model which can estimate the microscopic state of soil block and is called the EPM for pore structure, where the pore in elementary particulate body is summed up to be the pipe with the diameter and the inclination angle, which is considered to be the predominant flow direction of pore water and pore air. The microscopic physical quantities are numerically obtained from the macroscopic physical quantities which are obtained from the popular soil tests in the laboratory.
