• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.8
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• pp.29-39
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• 2023

The degree of saturation determines the connectivity of void space and the particle surface. Thus, it greatly affects the electrical conductivity of soils. This study aimed to analyze the electrical conductivities of coarse grains with a high relevance of pore water conduction and fine grains with a high relevance of surface conduction based on the degree of saturation. It also aimed to express the electrical conductivity of unsaturated soils as a combination of surface and pore water conductions using the modified Archie's equation. Samples were prepared in a plastic cell equipped with four electrodes, and the electrical conductivity was measured based on the porosity at various degrees of saturation (40%~100%). The results demonstrate that Archie's equation can be used to express the electrical conductivity of coarse grains, with a saturation exponent of ~1.93 regardless of the pore water conductivity. However, the saturation exponent of fine grains varied considerably with pore water concentration. This variation can be attributed to the relative magnitude of surface conduction with respect to the electrical conductivity of soils at different pore water concentrations. Thus, the degree of saturation has varying effects on pore water conduction and surface conduction. Therefore, different saturation exponents must be used for pore water conduction and surface conduction to predict the electrical conductivity of unsaturated soils using the modified Archie's equation.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.531-543
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• 2021

Freezing and thawing of pore water within backfill can affect the stability of retaining wall as the phase change of pore water causes changes in the mechanical characteristics of backfill material. In this study, the effects of freezing and thawing on the mechanical performance of retaining wall with granular backfill were investigated for various temperature and groundwater level (GWL) conditions. The thermal and mechanical finite element analyses were performed by assigning the coefficient of lateral earth pressure according to phase change of soil for at-rest, active and passive stress states. For the at-rest condition, the mobilized lateral stress and overturning moment changed markedly during freezing and thawing. Active-state displacements for the thawed condition were larger than for the unfrozen condition whereas the effect of freezing and thawing was small for the passive condition. GWL affected significantly the lateral force and overturning moment (Mo) acting on the wall during freezing and thawing, indicating that the reduction of safety margin and wall collapse due to freezing and thawing can occur in sudden, unexpected patterns. The beneficial effect of an insulation layer between the retaining wall and the backfill in reducing the heat conduction from the wall face was also investigated and presented.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.567-576
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• 2023

In this study, a 3D microstructure-based model is established to simulate the effective thermal conductivity of cement paste, covering varying influencing factors associated with microstructure and thermal transfer mechanisms. The virtual cement paste divided into colloidal C-S-H and heterogeneous paste are reconstructed based on its structural attributes. Using the two-level hierarchical cement pastes as inputs, a lattice Boltzmann model for heat conduction is presented to predict the thermal conductivity. The results suggest that due to the Knudsen effect induced by the nanoscale pore, the thermal conductivity of air in C-S-H gel pore is significantly decreased, maximumly accounting for 3.3% thermal conductivity of air at the macroscale. In the cement paste, the thermal conductivities of dried and saturated cement pastes are stable at the curing age larger than 100 h. The high water-to-cement ratio can decrease the thermal conductivity of cement paste.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.131-151
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• 2011

The electrical conductivity of a soil-water system is related to its engineering properties. By measuring the soil electrical conductivity, one may obtain quantitative, semi-quantitative, or qualitative information to estimate the in-situ soil behavior for site characterization. This paper presents the results of electrical conductivity measured on compacted kaolin clay samples using a circular two-electrode cell in conjunction with a specially designed compaction apparatus, which has the advantage of reducing errors due to sample handling and increasing measurement accuracy. The experimental results are analyzed to observe the effects of various parameters on soil electrical conductivity, i.e. porosity, unit weight, water content and pore water salinity. The performance of existing analytical models for predicting the electrical conductivity of saturated and unsaturated soils is evaluated by calculating empirical constants in these models. It is found that the Rhoades model gives the best fit for the kaolin clay investigated. Two general relationships between the formation factor and soil porosity are established based on the experimental data reported in the literature and measured from this study for saturated soils, which may provide insight for understanding electrical conduction characteristics of soils over a wide range of porosity.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2004

To evaluate the applicability of dielectric constant measurement method on the geoenvironmental investigation of subsurface contaminated by landfill leachate, the analysis on dielectric characteristics of sand containing contaminated pore water by landfill leachate was performed. The separate real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant were investigated in the frequency range of 75kHz to 12MHz. The real part of dielectric constant increased at the lower frequency wherea the real part of dielectric constant decreased at the higher frequency as the concentration of leachate increased. These results can be explained by the frequency dependence of space charge polarization and orientation polarization. The imaginary part of dielectric constant on the contaminated sand with leachate increased with their concentration for whole frequency range. These results are caused by the increase of energy loss due to the enhancement of conduction in soil with leachate concentration. The results in this study indicate that the dielectric constant measurement method has potential in evaluating the contaminated soil and pore water by landfill leachate.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.35-47
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• 2017

Thermal behavior of soils is mainly focused on thermal conduction, and the study of natural convection is very limited. Increase of soil temperature causes natural convection due to buoyancy from density change of pore water. The limitations of the analysis using fluid dynamics for natural convection in the porous media is discussed and a new numerical analysis is presented for natural convection in porous media using THM governing equations fully coupled in the macroscopic view. Numerical experiments for thermal probe show increase in the uncertainty of thermal conductivity estimated without considering natural convection, and suggest appropriate experimental procedures to minimize errors between analytical model and numerical results. Burial of submarine power cable should not exceed the temperature changes of $2^{\circ}C$ at the depth of 0.2 m under the seabed, but numerical analysis for high permeable ground exceeds this criterion. Temperature and THM properties of the seafloor are important design factors for the burial of power cable, and in this case effects of natural convection should be considered. Especially, in the presence of heat sources in soils with high permeability, natural convection due to the variation of density of pore water should be considered as an important heat transfer mechanism.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.231-241
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• 2005

Laboratory experiments were performed to examine the effects of water content and to see if permittivity had sufficient sensitivity to identify subsurface contamination. Both real and imaginary permittivities of unsaturated sand were strongly governed by the volumetric water content. Especially, a linear relationship between real permittivity and volumetric water content was derived at high frequencies (MHz ranges). Heavy metals in pore fluid result in significant increases in the effective imaginary permittivity, due to ionic conduction, but decreases in the real permittivity arises due to the decreased orientational polarization of water molecules caused by hydration of ions. Clear increase in the effective imaginary permittivity with heavy metal concentration was found to be valuable in the application of electrical methods for detecting heavy metals in the subsurface. However, because the permittivity is primarily dependent on the volumetric water content of soil, pre-evaluation on the volumetric water content is required.