Intrinsic Relationship between Specific Surface Area and Soil Water Retention
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 1
Abstract
Specific surface area (SSA) is a fundamental property of soil. A new methodology for SSA determination of both expansive and nonexpansive soil based on interpretation of the soil water retention curve (SWRC) is proposed and evaluated. The SWRC-based methodology relies on the Khorshidi-Lu water sorption model, where hydration of expansive soils is interpreted to occur on three distinct surfaces and in sequential order: exchangeable cations, intercrystalline surfaces, and external particle surfaces. Hydration at these different sites is responsible for the commonly observed hysteresis in specific moisture capacity (SMC) between adsorption and desorption paths. Hydration mechanisms for nonexpansive soils, where intercrystalline surfaces do not exist, are shown to be well captured by interpreting the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) multilayer sorption theory if the effect of cation hydration on the SWRC is considered. A suite of materials ranging from silty to clayey soils is used to demonstrate the validity of the SWRC-based methodology. A comparison of SSA values obtained using the SWRC-based methodology, two existing water-vapor-based methods, and the ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (EGME) method confirms the validity and the accuracy of the SWRC-based methodology. Agreement between SSA values calculated based on the SWRC approach and the EGME method for nonexpansive soils and expansive soils as estimated by root-square-mean error (RSME) is and , respectively. A limitation of the EGME method for the SSA determination of expansive soils is also identified.
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Acknowledgments
This research is funded by a collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation to NL (NSF CMMI 1233063) and WJL (NSF CMMI 1304119).
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 1 • January 2017
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 7, 2015
Accepted: May 3, 2016
Published online: Jul 20, 2016
Discussion open until: Dec 20, 2016
Published in print: Jan 1, 2017
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