Related papers: The soil reference shrinkage curve
A recent model showed how a clay shrinkage curve is step-by-step transformed into the shrinkage curve of an aggregated soil at any clay content if it is measured on samples so small that cracks do not occur at shrinkage. Such a shrinkage…
Clay and soil containing it have shrinkage curves that are qualitatively different in shape. The objective of this work is to qualitatively show with maximum simplicity, how a clay shrinkage curve turns into a soil shrinkage curve. Because…
Physical understanding of the links between soil swelling, texture, structure, cracking, and sample size is of great interest for the physical understanding of many processes in the soil-air-water system and for applications in civil,…
The objective of this work is a physical prediction of such soil shrinkage anisotropy characteristics as variation with drying of (i) different sample/layer sizes and (ii) the shrinkage geometry factor. With that, a new presentation of the…
The objective of this work is to derive the soil water retention from the soil structure without curve-fitting and only using the physical parameters found irrespective of an experimental retention curve. Two key points underlie the work:…
A recently introduced parameter, the ratio of an aggregate solid mass to a solid mass of an intraaggregate matrix (K ratio) is connected with the mean thickness of a deformable, but non-shrinking surface layer of aggregates and is a…
Water retention is one of the key soil characteristics. Available models of soil water retention relate to the curve-fitting type. The objective of this work is to suggest a physical model of water retention (drying branch) for soils with a…
Physical understanding of the crack origin and quantitative physical prediction of the crack volume variation far from the clay soil surface are necessary to protect the underlying aquifers from pollutants. The basis of this work is an…
The effect of a "pore-size" length-scale parameter l on compaction of grounds with fluid inclusions is studied. They are modelled as continua endowed with micro-structure by means of the macro-modelling procedure proposed in [2]. We show…
Cracking and peeling of a layer of clay on desiccation has been simulated using a spring model. A vertical section through the layer with finite thickness is represented by a rectangular array of nodes connected by linear springs on a…
A pore-scale model is introduced for two-phase flow in dense packings of polydisperse spheres. The model is developed as a component of a more general hydromechanical coupling framework based on the discrete element method, which will be…
The soil compaction by vehicles is a major factor responsible for physical degradation of cultivated soils. Uniaxial confined compression tests are usually performed to characterise the compaction properties of soil. Two main forms of…
Desiccation cracking in clayey soils occurs when they lose moisture, leading to an increase in their compressibility and hydraulic conductivity and hence significant reduction of soil strength. The prediction of desiccation cracking in…
When a mass of saturated clay is heated, as in the case of host soils surrounding nuclear waste disposals at great depth, the thermal expansion of the constituents generates excess pore pressures. The mass of clay is submitted to gradients…
The presence of desiccation cracks in soils can significantly alter their mechanical and hydrological properties. In many circumstances, desiccation cracking in soils can cause significant damage to earthen or soil supported structures. For…
We study rain water infiltration and drainage in a dry model sandy soil with superabsorbent hydrogel particle additives by measuring the mass of retained water for non-ponding rainfall using a self-built 3D laboratory set-up. In the pure…
Inversion methodology has been used to obtain, from multi-layer soil probes records, a complete soil parametrisation, namely water retention curve, unsaturated conductivity curve and bulk density at 4 depths. The approach integrates water…
When developing risk prediction models, shrinkage methods are recommended, especially when the sample size is limited. Several earlier studies have shown that the shrinkage of model coefficients can reduce overfitting of the prediction…
The pore-solid interface and its characteristics play a key role in chemical interactions between minerals in the solid soil matrix and the liquid in pore space and, consequently, solute transport in soils. Specific surface area (SSA),…
In submerged sandy slopes, soil is frequently eroded as a combination of two main mechanisms: breaching, which refers to the retrogressive failure of a steep slope forming a turbidity current, and, instantaneous sliding wedges, known as…