HR: 1340h
AN: H33A-1374    [Abstracts]
TI: Hydraulic Conductivity of Deforming Soil, a Micromechanical Approach
AU: Berli, M
EM: mberli@engr.uconn.edu
AF: University of Connecticut, Civil and Environmental Engineering, 261 Glenbrook Road, Storrs, CT 06269 United States
AU: Eggers, C G
EM: chrise@engr.uconn.edu
AF: University of Connecticut, Civil and Environmental Engineering, 261 Glenbrook Road, Storrs, CT 06269 United States
AU: Accorsi, M L
EM: accorsi@engr.uconn.edu
AF: University of Connecticut, Civil and Environmental Engineering, 261 Glenbrook Road, Storrs, CT 06269 United States
AU: * Or, D
EM: dani@engr.uconn.edu
AF: University of Connecticut, Civil and Environmental Engineering, 261 Glenbrook Road, Storrs, CT 06269 United States
AB: Recent emphasis on the use of earth materials for hydraulic capping, waste containment and isolation necessitates improved understanding of relationships between soil hydraulic and transport properties and its mechanical status at various scales. Analytical models for microscale compression of beds of viscoplastic soil aggregates were extended using Finite Element analysis (FEA) that considers complex geometry of inter-aggregate pores and aggregate contacts and provides a detailed picture of pore-scale deformation and associated changes in hydraulic properties. The impact of soil deformation on hydraulic conductivity was obtained from FEA solutions of the flow fields within the inter-aggregate pore space. For unsaturated conditions, we use the evolution of the aggregate contact areas to predict the predominantly intra-aggregate water flow and the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function. Measurements of soil rheological properties coupled with images of deforming aggregate beds monitored with X-ray CT were used to validate the micromechanical/morphological modeling. The evolution of pore space between spherical modeling-clay aggregates are in reasonable agreement with model calculations using rheology and initial geometry as sole inputs. Model calculations assuming a bimodal pore distribution (intra- and inter-aggregate pores) agree with results on evolution of hydraulic conductivity due to deformation for both saturated and unsaturated soils reported in literature.
DE: 1822 Geomechanics
DE: 1847 Modeling
DE: 1849 Numerical approximations and analysis
DE: 1865 Soils (0486)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005