Pressure-sinkage comparison of sand and cornstarch-based material using an improvised bevameter

Abstract

We develop a low-cost improvised bevameter to test the pressure-sinkage relationship in granular and bio-analogous materials. A bevameter is commonly used to characterize the nonlinear relationship between the normal pressure applied to a deformable terrain and the resulting sinkage. For accessibility and replication, controlled loading was implemented by carefully placing known weights onto a bed of sand, and the resulting sinkage was recorded. A cornstarch-based material was also tested under identical conditions to evaluate the consistency of deformation behavior across materials. Results demonstrated that the cornstarch-based material reproduces the same pressure-sinkage form as that observed in sand under controlled conditions while maintaining greater consistency across experimental configurations, suggesting a reliable comparative medium for studying deformation behavior in granular systems.