Abstract
An accurate estimation of soil permeability is essential in geotechnical engineering. Transparent soil provides a promising experimental material to visualize pore-scale fluid flow, although the permeability characteristic of transparent soil remains unclear. As a result of the replacement of the fluid and solid phase, the permeability coefficient of transparent soil is usually several times or even more than ten times smaller than that of natural soil with the same particle size distribution and porosity. Fused quartz sand is used as the solid phase in this proposed transparent soil, which exhibits a similar mechanical behavior but different permeability to those of natural sand. Due to its low cost and eco-friendly characteristic, a mixture of mineral oil and aliphatic hydrocarbon is proposed as the liquid phase, which can achieve the same refractive index as the fused quartz sand after calculating the material proportion. Through a series of laboratory tests, the permeability of the transparent soil is obtained; the permeability is affected by the fluid dynamic viscosity, fluid density, particle size, particle size distribution, void ratio, and pore morphology. A hierarchical approach is introduced to quantitatively evaluate the effect of the particle shape on the permeability. Based on the experimental results, a modified Kozeny–Carman model is proposed for the prediction of transparent soil permeability, which can guide the preparation of transparent soil samples in further experimental studies.
Highlights
Permeability is an essential engineering property of soil, dominating the pore water flow and affecting the soil mechanical behavior [1]
The experimental study investigates the permeability of a proposed transparent soil, which consists of fused quartz sand and a mixed oil
Fused quartz sand is used as the solid phase in this proposed transparent soil, which exhibits a significantly different particle shape from the natural soil due to the lack of weathering
Summary
Permeability is an essential engineering property of soil, dominating the pore water flow and affecting the soil mechanical behavior [1]. Soil permeability is used to depict the pore water flow at a macro scale, while the seepage flow occurs at a micro scale. The emergence of transparent soil provides a feasible technique with which to explore and visualize seepage and osmotic particle motion within soils. Transparent soil is a synthetic material used to simulate the original soil behavior. The solid material is an artificial transparent particle, and the pore fluid is a synthetic liquid with the same refractive index as the particle [3,4]
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