Evaluating Soil Water Matric Pressure and Sorptivity Relationship as Affected by some Properties of a Clay Soil

Author(s):  
Gülay Karahan

Sorptivity (S) is the fundamental variable controlling the early infiltration process. Besides soil properties, soil initial water content (θi) and/or matric pressure (hi) are key factors determining extent of S. Assessment of interrelationship among S, hi and soil properties can provide a considerable insight into understanding the behaviour of dry soils to rainfall or irrigation water. This study was conducted to evaluate relationship between S and some selected soil parametric and morphometric properties within a range of hi. Sixteen undisturbed soil samples (5 cm id, 5 cm length) were taken from the topsoil (0-15 cm) of a paddy soil with clay texture. Sorptivity was measured with a mini-disc infiltrometer (MDI) on the samples equilibrated at h, ranging from -20 to -1500 kPa. A parameter (η), representing the relationship between S and hi, was introduced. Correlation analysis was conducted between η and selected soil morphometric and parametric properties. Soil structure and clay content appeared the most important soil attributes influencing S-hi relation between -200 and -1500 kPa. The results provided a fundamental understanding on S-hi-soil properties interrelations in a clay soil. The methodology developed in this study can be used to evaluate S-hi relationship across different soils and scales.

2011 ◽  
Vol 233-235 ◽  
pp. 2528-2531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi An Li ◽  
Qiang Xu ◽  
Hong Zhou Lin ◽  
Wan Jun Ye

Sub-ground erosion often resulted in severe problems in various engineering constructions, most of which is due to the sub-erosion in loess. In this paper, the critical condition of “soil bursting” was analyzed and the formula describing the critical condition of soil bursting was derivated by the analytical method. Furthermore, the velocity of tunnel-erosion in loess and its influential factors were studied. A set of tests are designed to study the relationship between the tunnel-erosion velocity and the key influential factors. The key factors considered in the test include soil density as well as the initial water content. The other purpose is to reveal the characteristics of the tunnel-erosion process. Phenomena observed during the tests together with the data from field survey revealed the mechanism of tunneling in loess very well, and the work in this paper formed a theoretical basis for further study about sub-ground erosion in loess.


Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenglong Yin ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Xunli Jiang ◽  
Zhiyi Huang

Initial water content significantly affects the efficiency of soil stabilization. In this study, the effects of initial water content on the compressibility, strength, microstructure, and composition of a lean clay soil stabilized by compound calcium-based stabilizer were investigated by static compaction test, unconfined compression test, optical microscope observations, environment scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The results indicate that as the initial water content increases in the range studied, both the compaction energy and the maximum compaction force decrease linearly and there are less soil aggregates or agglomerations, and a smaller proportion of large pores in the compacted mixture structure. In addition, for specimens cured with or without external water supply and under different compaction degrees, the variation law of the unconfined compressive strength with initial water content is different and the highest strength value is obtained at various initial water contents. With the increase of initial water content, the percentage of the oxygen element tends to increase in the reaction products of the calcium-based stabilizer, whereas the primary mineral composition of the soil-stabilizer mixture did not change notably.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Lianzhen Zhang ◽  
Qingsong Zhang ◽  
Zhipeng Li ◽  
Hongbo Wang

In fracture or compaction grouting projects of sand layer, there exist many compacted sand regions on both sides of grout veins or around grout bulbs. It has an important effect on the final reinforcement effect of the sand layer that how much performance of the sand layer is improved after being compacted. Compression modulus, cohesion, and permeability coefficient are selected to be the performance indexes of the compaction reinforcement effect of sand. The relationship between the performance properties of sand and grouting pressure has been tested and analyzed. And influences of clay content and initial water ratio of sand on the compaction reinforcement effect have been studied. Results show that compaction can effectively improve the mechanical properties and impermeability properties of sand. Compression modulus of sand increases by 2∼18 times. The cohesion of sand increases from the scope of 9.4∼26 kPa to the scope of 40∼113.6 kPa. The permeability coefficient of sand decreases from the scope of 1.0 × 10−2∼ 8.33 × 10−4 cm/s to the scope of 2.19 × 10−4∼2.77 × 10−9 cm/s. When the clay content of sand is smaller than about 20%, sand cannot be reinforced effectively by compaction. Cohesion cannot be improved significantly and the permeability coefficient cannot be reduced markedly. A high initial water ratio of sand is beneficial to improve the compression modulus of compacted sand and goes against the improvement of cohesion of compacted sand. In addition, the initial water ratio has little effect on the permeability coefficient of compacted sand. In the end, fitting formulas have been developed to quantitatively describe the compaction reinforcement effect of sand by different grouting pressures.


Author(s):  
Chenglong Yin ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Xun-li Jiang ◽  
Zhi-yi Huang

Initial water content significantly affects the efficiency of soil stabilization. In this study, the effects of initial water content on the compressibility, strength, microstructure and composition of a lean clay soil stabilized by compound calcium-based stabilizer were investigated by static compaction test, unconfined compression test, optical microscope observations, environment scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. The results indicate that as the initial water content increases in the range studied, both the compaction energy and the maximum compaction force decrease linearly and there are less soil aggregates or agglomerations, and smaller proportion of large pores in the compacted mixture structure. In addition, for specimens cured with or without external water supply and under different compaction degrees, the variation law of the unconfined compressive strength with initial water content is different and the highest strength value is obtained at various initial water contents. With the increase of initial water content, the percentage of oxygen element tends to increase in the reaction products of the calcium-based stabilizer, whereas the crystalline mineral of the soil did not change obviously.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huayong Chen ◽  
Chunran Cao ◽  
Xiaoqing Chen ◽  
Jiangang Chen

<p>Besides the numerous artificial dams, there are some other kind of dams distribute such as the glacier dams, moraine dams, landslide dams, and the debris flow dams in China. Especially, the landslide dams and debris flow ones widely distribute in southwest of China after the M8.0 Wenchuan earthquake. Much attention has been paid to the formation, stability, breach process, and the peak discharge prediction of a landslide dam. However few achievements are obtained on the debris flow dams even if the failure of a debris flow dam has posed great threat to the property and life of residents downstream. In this paper, based on the main difference between a landslide and debris flow dam, experiments were conducted by considering different clay content, the initial water content, and incoming water flow. It indicated that the failure duration of a debris flow dam was about 1.60 times as long as that than that of a landslide dam. The peak discharge at the debris flow dam breach was 5.38 L/s. However, the peak discharge at the landslide dam was 7.50 L/s, which was 1.39 times as big as that of a debris flow dam. Finally, by modifying the existing critical initialization condition for the landslide dams, the critical initialization condition for a debris flow dam was proposed.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rulong Ban ◽  
Xuejun Chen ◽  
Yu Song ◽  
Pengyan Bi ◽  
Xin Yang ◽  
...  

In order to study the permeability characteristics of heavy metal ions contaminated red clay and explore the rapid detection of permeability of heavy metal contaminated red clay. Through variable-head permeability test and electrical resistivity test (different voltages and methods), the effects of Cu2+ concentration and initial water content on hydraulic conductivity characteristic and resistivity of contaminated red clay was systematically investigated. The relationship between permeability characteristic and electrical resistivity was further explored by taking Cu2+ concentration and moisture content as the intermediate variable. The obtained results indicate that the different voltage has no obvious effect on the resistivity of the samples. The four-phase electrode method is more accurate than the two-phase electrode method. With increasing Cu2+ concentrations the hydraulic conductivity of specimens increases, however the permeability coefficient of contaminated soil decreases with increasing initial water content. In the resistivity test, with increasing of Cu2+ concentrations and water content, the resistivity of samples presented a downward trend, which is decreased sharply at first and then tended to be gentle. The relationship between hydraulic conductivity and resistivity of contaminated soil showed a good fitting curve no matter in different Cu2+ concentration or in different water content, but the fitting curves of them presented opposite trend.


2013 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryl F. Dagesse

Dagesse, D. F. 2013. Freezing cycle effects on water stability of soil aggregates. Can. J. Soil Sci. 93: 473–483. The freezing process is commonly implicated as a key factor in defining the state of soil structural stability following the winter months. Controversy exists, however, regarding the efficacy, and even the net effect, of this process. The objective of the study was to establish the separate effects of the freezing, freeze–thaw and freeze-drying processes in defining soil structural stability following the over-winter period. Aggregates from soils of varying clay content (0.11, 0.33, 0.44 kg kg−1) and initial water content (0.10, 0.20 or 0.30 kg kg−1) were subjected to freeze-only (F), freeze–thaw (FT) and freeze-dry (FD) treatments. Post-treatment aggregate stability determination was via wet aggregate stability (WAS) and dispersible clay (DC). Freezing alone and freeze-dry treatments generally resulted in greater aggregate stability, while the freeze–thaw generally resulted in lower aggregate stability as compared with a control, not frozen treatment (T). These data suggest the freezing-induced desiccation process improves aggregate stability, while the addition of a thaw component following freezing, with the attendant liquid water, is responsible for degradation of aggregate stability. Clay content and initial water content are important factors governing the magnitude of this process.


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