Abstract
This paper investigates the effect of the soil moisture evaporation rate on the soil water retention curve (SWRC) of clays obtained using the high-capacity tensiometer (HCT) technique and following the continuous drying (dynamic) method. SWRC measurements, with and without soil moisture evaporation rate control, were carried out on reconstituted London clay specimens using 12 performance-improved HCTs recently developed at the University of Warwick. Furthermore, the HCTs' performance in terms of the maximum attainable suction (smax) and maximum measurement duration (tmax) was evaluated. Moreover, the suitability of a curve-fitting-based model, available in the literature, for attaining the entire retention curve (beyond the capacity of HCTs) was evaluated. The SWRCs for the tests with a controlled evaporation rate were found to generally exhibit higher suction at a given water content, hence inducing air-entry values that were on average 16% higher than those obtained from tests without evaporation rate control. It was also found that for suction in excess of 2 MPa, the curve-fitting-based model predictions of data obtained from tests with a controlled evaporation rate exhibited significantly lower suction at a given water content than those without evaporation rate control, suggesting that such curve fitting correlations should be used with caution.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 04021301 |
| Pages (from-to) | (In-Press) |
| Journal | International Journal of Geomechanics |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 22 Dec 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2022 |
Bibliographical note
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Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Keywords
- High-capacity tensiometer
- Soil water retention curve
- Evaporation rate
- Air-entry value
- Soil Science
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
- Soil Science