A General Model for Temperature-Dependent Soil Suction
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 150, Issue 12
Abstract
Soil suction is a crucial parameter that affects the behavior of unsaturated soils. The impact of temperature on suction can lead to significant changes in the hydromechanical response of unsaturated soils. However, current models that describe the temperature dependency of soil suction rely mainly on empirical and semiempirical relationships, which do not fully consider the contribution of soil structure and degree of saturation on enthalpy potential. To address this limitation, we propose a novel general model for temperature-dependent soil suction based on thermodynamic laws. The model accounts for the thermodynamic processes that determine the enthalpy of the soil and uses these processes to develop the mathematical relationships required for the model. Specifically, we expand the Gibbs free energy for both internal chemical exchanges and when dealing with the thermodynamic system as a whole. We then combine the resulting equations to obtain a general model for the soil total suction. The model is validated by comparing its predictions against laboratory-measured suction at different temperatures for different soils reported in the literature. Furthermore, we demonstrate the model’s potential by showing an application in simulating the soil-water retention curve at different temperatures. The proposed model can contribute to a better understanding of the behavior of unsaturated soils under varying temperature conditions by providing a comprehensive and physics-based approach to modeling temperature-dependent soil suction.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 150 • Issue 12 • December 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 19, 2023
Accepted: Jul 15, 2024
Published online: Sep 28, 2024
Published in print: Dec 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Feb 28, 2025
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering mechanics
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Material mechanics
- Material properties
- Materials engineering
- Mathematical models
- Measurement (by type)
- Models (by type)
- Saturated soils
- Soft soils
- Soil dynamics
- Soil mechanics
- Soil properties
- Soil suction
- Soils (by type)
- Temperature (by type)
- Temperature effects
- Temperature measurement
- Thermal properties
- Thermodynamics
- Unsaturated soils
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