Intrinsic Relation between Soil Water Retention and Cation Exchange Capacity
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 4
Abstract
The authors hypothesize that soil water retention (SWR) is dominated by cation hydration in soils possessing a cation exchange capacity (CEC) at high suction range. This hypothesis leads to the identification of a unitary maximum gravimetric water content , up to which all water molecules should surround the exchangeable cations. The unitary can be obtained by using the CEC and hydration number of cations in soils. For a soil with an unknown CEC, the authors reveal that can be found independently from either the SWR based on the hysteretic behavior of a soil’s specific moisture capacity (SMC), or from the SWR curve interpreted by a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) sorption model. The authors demonstrate experimentally that computed independently from the previous approaches accord well with the calculated , indicating the validity of the hypothesized unitary state and applicability of the SWR-based methodology in determining the CEC of soils.
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Acknowledgments
This research is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF CMMI 1233063).
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 4 • April 2017
Copyright
©2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 11, 2015
Accepted: Aug 23, 2016
Published online: Nov 11, 2016
Published in print: Apr 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Apr 11, 2017
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