Function Of Saturation Degree Research Articles

Modified Equation of Shear Strength with Respect to Saturation

Unsaturated soil shear strength is a significant topic in geotechnical engineering. The measurement of unsaturated soil properties such as shear strength and matric suction could be costly, hard, time-consuming, and often impractical to obtain. The purpose of this research is to propose a new shear strength model for unsaturated soil and to predict the shear strength by using the degree of saturation directly because the water saturation is easy to obtain. More specifically, this study focused on Bishop’s shear strength theory and van Genuchten’s soil–water characteristic curve to describe the effect of saturation on shear strength. The new shear strength model was expressed as a function of saturation degree, residual degree of saturation, effective shear strength indices, net normal stress, and five parameters. The performance of the presented model in this paper was verified by fitting it to data obtained by laboratory tests on silty sand including the triaxial shear test and soil–water characteristic curve test. From these two laboratory tests, we obtained the variation in the matric suction and shear strength with the degree of saturation under various dry densities. This proposed model was also validated against the shear strength results of the clayed-silty sand and Ankara clay recorded in the literature. Comparing the result of the shear strength under the variation of one parameter, this model was much more sensitive regarding parameter m, which was related to the material characteristic. The comparison between the predicted values and experimental points was particularly fine and showed the ability of this model to be applied to a wide range of soils.

The thermal conductivity of unlithified granular volcanic materials: The influence of hydrothermal alteration and degree of water saturation

The thermal properties of volcanic materials are required for modelling and for understanding volcanic surface heat fluxes and timescales for cooling magma. However, compared to volcanic rocks, there are relatively few thermal property data for unlithified granular volcanic materials. Here, we measured the thermal properties of a suite of hydrothermally altered powders from La Soufrière de Guadeloupe (Eastern Caribbean) as a function of water saturation degree. Our data show, under dry conditions, that thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity decrease, and that specific heat capacity does not change systematically, as a function of the degree of alteration of the unlithified granular material. For example, thermal conductivity decreases from ∼0.3 to ∼0.2 W·m−1·K−1 as the quantity of alteration minerals in the samples increases from ∼10 to ∼70 wt%. We interpret the decrease in thermal conductivity with increasing alteration as the result of the lower thermal conductivity of the alteration mineral assemblage relative to the unaltered assemblage. Our data also show that thermal conductivity increases from ∼0.2–0.3 to ∼0.8–1.1 W·m−1·K−1 as saturation degree increases from dry to at, or close to, complete saturation, due to the higher thermal conductivity of water compared to air. We show that an empirical model for variably saturated granular media is in general agreement with our data and provides a framework to predict the thermal conductivity of unlithified granular volcanic materials as a function of saturation degree. The data and modelling provided herein can help improve heat flux calculations designed to inform on volcanic and geothermal processes.

Capillary bridges between unsaturated nano-mineral particles: a molecular dynamics study.

Capillary bridges play an important role in the process of cohesion, which is crucial for wet granular media, and engineering of pharmaceuticals and food processing. However, the understanding of capillary bridges at the nanoscale remains unclear because the mechanical performance of nanoscale capillary bridges cannot be fully captured and explained by classical capillary theory. We applied a novel molecular dynamic simulation to investigate the dynamic formation process of nanoscale capillary bridges between quartz asperities. In comparison with classical capillary theory, our results suggested that the application of the toroidal approximation and gorge method will break down at the scale of 1 nm. Below this threshold, a pronounced oscillation in the adhesive force was observed due to inconsistent distribution of water molecules in the capillary bridges. Moreover, we found a non-linear correlation between the adhesive force and the saturation degree. Different from the cohesive stress of sandy soil as a function of saturation degree, we identified an optimal saturation range of 0.5-0.7 instead of 0.2-0.9 for the sandy soil. Our findings enhance the understanding of capillary bridges and provide new insights into the capillary force between particles in the fields of geotechnical engineering, food-process engineering, the pharmaceutical industry and nanotechnology.

TDR센서를 이용한 제방의 포화도 및 지하수위 해석

The measured ground water behavior by TDR (time domain reflectometer) sensors were analyzed by the data filtering technique such as moving average method and Fourier transform, and the ground water level and unsaturated zone were tried to be determined numerically. At first, the variation of TDR data according to the saturation degree was measured by lab test, which is translated as a function of saturation degree. Then, changes of ground water level and lateral seepage in field conditions were simulated using acrylic pipe, and the measured data were analyzed to make calibration curve. Furthermore, TDR sensors were installed into the in-situ embankment to insure the field application. The saturation degree, unsaturated and dried zones were determined from the measured data.

Estimation of poromechanical and thermal conductivity properties of unsaturated isotropically microcracked cement pastes

AbstractThis study focuses on the estimation of mechanical, hydromechanical and thermal conduction parameters of isotropic microcracked hydrated cement pastes in unsaturated conditions. The prediction of these parameters is obtained as a function of saturation degree and isotropic microcrack density parameter by applying an explicit effective medium approximation scheme on the basis of a simple microstructure description of the material. This latter is supposed to be composed of a homogeneous matrix in which are distributed ellipsoidal particles and penny‐shaped inclusions representing pores and microcracks, respectively. These two types of inclusions are assumed to be of well‐separated sizes so that a two‐step homogenization procedure is employed. The effects of the pore shape and both open and close microcracks on the considered physical properties are investigated in partially saturated conditions by adopting a simplified desaturation–resaturation scenario. It is shown that the saturation degree repercussions on these properties increase when the pores have an oblate shape with low aspect ratio. Moreover, while Biot coefficient and thermal conductivity are significantly affected by saturation degree, undrained mechanical parameters appear to be only moderately modified by this factor. Besides, as expected microcracks induce important changes in all properties. The effects of the adsorbed water layers covering the surface of desaturated pores on the Biot coefficient are investigated by making use of the disjoining pressure concept, and results show only a moderate influence for very small pores. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The correlations between the saturated and dry P-wave velocity of rocks

Sometimes engineers need to estimate the wet-rock P-wave velocity from the dry-rock P-wave velocity. An estimation equation embracing all rock classes will be useful for the rock engineers. To investigate the predictability of wet-rock P-wave velocity from the dry-rock P-wave velocity, P-wave velocity measurements were performed on 41 different rock types, 11 of which were igneous, 15 of which were sedimentary and 15 of which was metamorphic. In addition to the dry- and wet-rock P-wave velocity measurements, the P-wave velocity changing as a function of saturation degree was studied. Moreover, dry-rock S-wave velocity measurements were conducted. The test results were modeled using Gassmann’s and Wood’s theory and it was seen that the measured data did not fit the theories. The unconformity is due to the fact that the theories are valid for high-porosity unconsolidated sediments at low frequencies. Gassmann’s equation was modified for the rocks except high-porosity unconsolidated sediments. The dry- and wet-rock P-wave velocity values were evaluated using regression analysis. A strong linear correlation between the dry- and wet-rock P-wave velocities was found. Regression analyses were repeated for the rock classes and it was shown that correlation coefficients were increased. Concluding remark is that the derived equations can be used for the prediction of wet-rock P-wave velocity from the dry-rock P-wave velocity.