Material coordinate driven variable-order fractal derivative model of water anomalous adsorption in swelling soil

Abstract

The diffusion process of water in swelling (expansive) soil often deviates from normal Fick diffusion and belongs to anomalous diffusion. The process of water adsorption by swelling soil often changes with time, in which the microstructure evolves with time and the absorption rate changes along a fractal dimension gradient function. Thus, based on the material coordinate theory, this paper proposes a variable order derivative fractal model to describe the cumulative adsorption of water in the expansive soil, and the variable order is time dependent linearly. The cumulative adsorption is a power law function of the anomalous sorptivity, and patterns of the variable order. The variable-order fractal derivative model is tested to describe the cumulative adsorption in chernozemic surface soil, Wunnamurra clay and sandy loam. The results show that the fractal derivative model with linearly time dependent variable-order has much better accuracy than the fractal derivative model with a constant derivative order and the integer order model in the application cases. The derivative order can be used to distinguish the evolution of the anomalous adsorption process. The variable-order fractal derivative model can serve as an alternative approach to describe water anomalous adsorption in swelling soil.