Effects of Contact Angle on the Hysteresis Effect of Soil-Water Characteristic Curves during Dry-Wet Cycles

The hysteresis characteristics of soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs) under dry-wet cycling conditions are very important for understanding unsaturated soil properties, so it is crucial to propose an accurate and efficient method for predicting the hysteretic behaviors of SWCCs. To this end, this paper investigates the hysteresis characteristics of SWCCs in the full suction range of seven kinds of Hunan red clay with different initial dry densities by combination of the pressure plate method, the paper filter method, and the saturated salt solution method. It is found that there are, respectively, strong and weak hysteresis zones in the drying and wetting SWCCs under dry-wet cycling conditions. By combining this feature and based on the drying curve, the soil volume and contact angle changes during the drying and wetting processes are employed to predict the hysteretic behaviors of SWCCs. To verify the validity of the prediction method, the predicted curves of the samples with different initial dry densities are compared with the measured curves. The results show that in the strong hysteresis zone, the hysteresis characteristics of the drying and wetting SWCCs are mainly resulted from the changes in the soil pore structure; in the weak hysteresis zone, the hysteresis characteristics are mainly influenced by the changes in the receding and advancing contact angles corresponding to the drying and wetting processes. The Young–Laplace theory is used to transform the changes of contact angle during the drying and wetting processes into the proportional relationship k of matric suction, and the corresponding wetting curve is obtained by smoothing the drying curve. It is found that the prediction effect in the high suction part (the strong hysteresis zone) is better than that in the weak hysteresis zone, which confirms that the hysteresis effect of SWCCs in the high suction part is influenced by the contact angle. Our proposed method can greatly reduce the test period and has a significant practical application value, which provides a new idea for the prediction of SWCCs under dry-wet cycling conditions.

Measurement and Uniform Formulation of Soil-Water Characteristic Curve for Compacted Loess Soil with Different Dry Densities

To investigate the effect of dry density on the soil-water characteristics of compacted soil, loess used as filling in the land-making project of the Yan’an new district was collected and compacted to five initial dry densities of 1.40, 1.50, 1.60, 1.70, and 1.80 g/cm3, respectively. The soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs) of all specimens in the range of 0–105 kPa were measured using the filter paper method. The measured data were fitted using the Fredlund and Xing equation for each initial dry density. The SWCCs have obvious differences in a suction range below 100 kPa and overlap when the suction range is higher. This suggests that the SWCC of compacted soil is independent of the initial dry density in the high suction range, but the correlation with the initial dry density exists in the low suction range. Therefore, the correlation functions of the parameters in the Fredlund and Xing equation with respect to the initial dry density were regressed, respectively. By substituting these functions into the Fredlund and Xing equation, the state surface function of θ w − ψ − ρ d was obtained and can reflect the SWCCs of all densities of the filled soil to support the further investigation of the unsaturated behavior of compacted soil.

Role of Mesh Pore Size in Dynamic Membrane Bioreactors

Two identical bench-scale Self-Forming Dynamic Membrane BioReactors (SFD MBR) were set-up and operated for the treatment of real urban wastewater. The two bioreactors were equipped with meshes of different mesh pore size. Meshes having pore size values of 20 and 50 µm were tested under solid retention time (SRT) of 15 d, whereas meshes with 50 and 100 µm pore sizes were compared under SRT of 50 d. The results of long-term experiments showed very good overall performances by all systems at the steady state. High flux (in the range 61–71 L m−2 h−1) and very good effluent quality were obtained, with average suspended solids and chemical oxygen demanding values below 10 mg L−1 and 35 mg L−1, respectively. The mesh pore size did not have a major influence on the average cleaning frequency. However, the pore size affected the effluent quality in correspondence of two particular conditions: (i) immediately after mesh cleaning; and (ii) during operation under high suction pressures (mesh clogging not promptly removed through cleaning). Moreover, the mesh cleaning frequency was observed to be dependent on the SRT. In tests with 50 d SRT, the cleaning requirements were very low (one every five days), and this limited the influence of the mesh pore size on the effluent quality. In conclusion, in SFD MBR, the role of the mesh pore size on the effluent quality may be more or less relevant depending on the operating conditions that directly influence the Dynamic Membrane formation.

Suction effects on the tensile strength and unconfined compression of unsaturated soils

The soil-water characteristic curve is an important relation of unsaturated soils, that expresses the variation of the amount of water retained in the soil as a function of its suction. In these soils, drying or wetting can have a great influence on their resistance parameters. This work presents and discusses the effects of increased suction on the tensile strength and unconfined compression of unsaturated soils. Suction was evaluated using the filter paper and the dew point technique, while the resistance parameters were obtained through the “Brazilian Test” and uniaxial compression. Three different soils from Rio de Janeiro were studied: two young residual soils, in which the influence of the soil structure was also verified through tests on undisturbed and reconstituted samples, and a colluvial soil. The results allowed to conclude that the increase of suction, in a first moment, generates an increase in the resistance parameters of these soils. With the continuation of the drying process, the mechanical behaviour of the soils varied, being able to maintain the resistance or showing a drop related to high suction values.

Studying Physical and Chemical Properties of Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide and Their Applications in Sustainable Building Materials

In this chapter, the authors identified graphene oxide (OG)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as nano composites by studying its nanoparticles' properties physically, chemically, and mechanically. In this study, they mentioned the photo catalyst materials PC regarding carbon nanostructures such as GO and RGO, which have excellent oxygen functionalities, efficient adsorption areas, and considerable surface area. The compositions of GO and RGO exceed electron-holes pair reinstallation time and minimize energy hiatus by adjusting valence band level (VBL) with conducting band level (CBL) bringing high suction of the exist radiance, which improves photo degeneration achievement of material oxides and composites made from polymers. They also studied the main applications of GO and RGO in engineering fields and summarized the usefulness of intercalation of GO and RGO in construction sectors. Moreover, many synthesis techniques lead to many types of GO. Therefore, in this chapter, the authors tried to collect most GO and RGO properties, structures, and applications.