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Abstract: Unsaturated clays are subject to osmotic suction gradients in geoenvironmental engineering applications and it therefore
becomes important to understand the effect of these chemical concentration gradients on soil-water characteristic curves 共SWCCs兲. This
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paper brings out the influence of induced osmotic suction gradient on the wetting SWCCs of compacted clay specimens inundated with
sodium chloride solutions/distilled water at vertical stress of 6.25 kPa in oedometer cells. The experimental results illustrate that variations
in initial osmotic suction difference induce different magnitudes of osmotic induced consolidation and osmotic consolidation strains
thereby impacting the wetting SWCCs and equilibrium water contents of identically compacted clay specimens. Osmotic suction induced
by chemical concentration gradients between reservoir salt solution and soil-water can be treated as an equivalent net stress component,
共p兲 that decreases the swelling strains of unsaturated specimens from reduction in microstructural and macrostructural swelling compo-
nents. The direction of osmotic flow affects the matric SWCCs. Unsaturated specimens experiencing osmotic induced consolidation and
osmotic consolidation develop lower equilibrium water content than specimens experiencing osmotic swelling during the wetting path.
The findings of the study illustrate the need to incorporate the influence of osmotic suction in determination of the matric SWCCs.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲GT.1943-5606.0000389
CE Database subject headings: Clays; Unsaturated soils; Suction; Laboratory tests; Expansive soils.
Author keywords: Clays; Unsaturated soils; Suction; Laboratory tests; Expansive soils.
Introduction tent, r, and water entry value, w. The air entry value is defined
as the suction at which air starts to enter the largest pores in the
Compacted clays are extensively used as barriers to restrict flow soil during drying cycle. Water content corresponding to saturated
of water and contaminants in geotechnical and geoenvironmental state of the soil is termed as saturated water content. Residual
engineering applications. These compacted barriers are unsatur- water content is defined as the water content at which further
ated and are characterized by suction. Knowledge of unsaturated increase in suction in course of drying does not result in signifi-
soil properties is essential for modeling flow and transport of cant decrease in water content and the suction corresponding to
water and contaminants through clay barriers 共Tinjum et al. 1997; this point is termed the residual suction r. The water entry value,
Miller et al. 2002兲. The soil-water characteristic curve 共SWCC兲 w, is defined as the suction at which the water content of the soil
has emerged as the primary constitutive relationship for interpret- starts to increase significantly during the wetting path 共Yang et al.
ing the behavior of unsaturated soils. Unsaturated soil properties 2004兲.
such as coefficient of permeability, shear strength, coefficient of The shape of the SWCC is influenced by soil type, mineralogy,
diffusion, and adsorption are predicted from SWCCs of unsatur- density, initial water content, soil structure, texture, stress history,
ated soils 共Fredlund and Rahardjo 1993; Fredlund and Xing 1994; method of compaction, and net confining stress 共Tinjum et al.
Fredlund et al. 1996; Vanapalli et al. 1996; Barbour 1998; Lim et 1997; Vanapalli et al. 1999; Lu and Likos 2004; Thu et al. 2007兲.
al. 1998; Fredlund 2000; Pham et al. 2005兲. The SWCC exhibits hysteresis; that is for a given suction, water
SWCC is defined as the relationship between gravimetric content during drying path 共desorption curve兲 is always higher
water content, w/volumetric water content, w/degree of satura- than that during wetting path 共adsorption curve兲. The general
tion, Sr and soil suction 共Fredlund and Rahardjo 1993兲. The key practice is to measure the SWCC by following the drying path
features of the SWCCs during wetting and drying paths are air owing to the experimental difficulties associated with measure-
entry value, a, saturated water content, s, residual water con- ments during wetting path 共Tinjum et al. 1997; Miller et al. 2002兲.
Pham et al. 共2005兲 reported the causes for differences in water
1
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of content between desorption and sorption curves: 共1兲 irregular
Technology Madras, Chennai, 600 036, India 共corresponding author兲. cross sections of the void passages; 共2兲 greater contact angle in
E-mail: ttraj@iitm.ac.in advancing meniscus when compared to receding meniscus; 共3兲
2
Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Chairman, Center for Sustain- volume of entrapped air in the soil during drying path 共increase in
able Technologies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560 012, India. suction兲 is different than during wetting path 共decrease in suc-
E-mail: msrao@civil.iisc.ernet.in tion兲; and 共4兲 thixotropic regain due to the wetting and drying
Note. This manuscript was submitted on July 29, 2009; approved on
history of the soil.
May 12, 2010; published online on May 15, 2010. Discussion period
open until May 1, 2011; separate discussions must be submitted for indi- Soil suction, , of unsaturated soil is contributed by matric
vidual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Geotechnical and suction, 共ua − uw兲, and osmotic suction, . Matric suction is attrib-
Geoenvironmental Engineering, Vol. 136, No. 12, December 1, 2010. uted to capillary actions in the soil structure. Osmotic suction is
©ASCE, ISSN 1090-0241/2010/12-1695–1702/$25.00. related to the dissolved salts in soil-water 共Nelson and Miller
pacted specimens that were remolded with distilled water are des- Results and Discussion
ignated as S1, S2, and S3 series specimens. Compacted
specimens that were remolded with 0.4M and 4M sodium chlo- Fig. 1共a兲 plots the matric SWCCs of S1, S2, and S3 specimens
ride solutions are referred as “salt-amended specimens” or S4 and 共initial matric suction= 1 , 997 kPa兲. These specimens are sub-
S5 series specimens. The S1 to S5 specimens were placed be- jected to initial osmotic suction difference of 0, 1,958, and 19,807
tween two air-dry porous stones and set in a fixed ring oedometer kPa upon wetting by distilled water, 0.4M and 4M sodium chlo-
cell 共double drainage condition兲 at a vertical stress of 6.25 kPa. ride solutions respectively in the oedometer cells. The matric suc-
All oedometer tests were conducted at room temperature that var- tion of the unsaturated Specimens S1, S2, and S3 cause them to
ied between 24° C and 26° C. absorb distilled water/salt solutions thereby increasing their gravi-
The S1, S2, and S3 specimens 共initial matric suction metric water content 关Fig. 1共a兲兴. The plots also show that at given
= 1 , 997 kPa兲 were inundated with distilled water, 0.4M and 4M matric suction, specimens characterized by higher initial osmotic
sodium chloride solutions, respectively, in separate oedometer
cells. Initial osmotic suction difference of 0, 1,958, and 19,807
kPa was induced by inundating the S1, S2, and S3 specimens with 39
S1
distilled water, 0.4M and 4M sodium chloride solutions, respec- 38
35 S3
dating the salt-amended S4 and S5 specimens with distilled water. 34
Table 2 presents oedometer test details and series designation. 33
The increase in thickness of compacted specimens during wet- 32
ting path was recorded at different time intervals in the five 共S1,
31
S2, S3, S4, and S5兲 test series. Three separate sets of experiments
30
for each test series were performed with multiple identically com-
29
pacted specimens to determine changes in water content, matric
28
suction, and osmotic suction gradient during the wetting path for
0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
generating matric SWCCs and osmotic SWCCs. The maximum (a) Matric suction (kPa)
variability in water contents of specimens of a given series was
⫾0.1%. 1.06
The matric suction at given time interval during wetting path
1.04
of any series specimen was determined in triplicate in accordance S1
with ASTM filter paper method 共ASTM 2003兲. The variability in 1.02
matric suction between triplicate measurements ranged from ⫾3 S4
d ratio, e
1.00
to 12% and is attributed to variability in water contents of the test S2
called matric SWCCs and the plots of water content versus os- S3
0.96
motic suction difference are called osmotic SWCCs.
The osmotic suction difference arises from differences in dis- 0.94
solved salt concentration of the soil-water and the oedometer res-
ervoir solution. Osmotic suction difference at given time interval 0.92
Void ratio, e
0.96 8
n, s
Matric suction
6
0.94
S1 S2 S3
4
0.92
2
0.90 0
NLf1 NLf2 NLf3 100 1000 10000
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Table 3. Exchangeable Cation Composition of Specimens S1, S2, and S3 at the End of Wetting/Swelling Process
Exchangeable cation composition
共meq/100 g兲
Series Remolding fluid Inundating fluid Calcium Magnesium Sodium Potassium
S1 Distilled water Distilled water 33.3 22.5 0.3 0.5
S2 Distilled water 0.4M NaCl 29.7 19.9 6.5 0.5
S3 Distilled water 4.0M NaCl 27.1 5.7 23.6 0.3
Region 2
4.0M NaCl
36 forces due to inward salt diffusion 共Rao and Thyagaraj 2007a兲.
Region 2
35 Fig. 1共a兲 allows comparison of the matric SWCCs of Speci-
mens S2 and S4. The initial matric suction of Specimens S2 and
Water content (%)
34
S4 correspond to 1,997 and 1,716 kPa, respectively. The lower
Region 1
Region 1
S2 S3
pation of matric suction by absorption of salt solution increases
31
the equilibrium water content of S2 specimen from 28 to 35.6%
30 关Fig. 1共a兲兴, whereas the equilibrium water content of the salt-
29 amended S4 specimen increased 共from 28%兲 to 38.7% upon dis-
tilled water absorption 关Fig. 1共a兲兴. An initial osmotic suction
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28
100 1000 10000 100000
difference of 1,958 kPa is induced in S2 and S4 specimens due to
(a)
salt concentration differences in soil-water and oedometer reser-
Osmotic suction (kPa)
voirs. This osmotic suction difference causes osmotic induced
1.02 consolidation and osmotic consolidation during wetting of S2
Inundating fluid specimen by 0.4M sodium chloride solution that limits its equi-
S2
1.00 0.4M NaCl librium water content to 35.6%. In case of salt-amended specimen
4.0M NaCl 共S4兲, inward flow of distilled water 共due to dissipation of matric
0.98 suction and induced osmotic suction兲 and outward diffusion of
salts 共cause osmotic swelling兲 aid microstructural swelling and
d ratio, e
S3
0.96 higher equilibrium water content of 38.7%. The void ratio-matric
Void
S2 S4
1.05 S5
Void ratiio, e
34
1.00
32
Remoulding fluid: Distilled water; S3
Inundating fluid: 0.4M NaCl 0.95
30
Remoulding fluid: 0.4M NaCl;
Inundating fluid: Distilled water
28 0.90
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1.08
Remoulding fluid: Distilled water;
Fig. 6. Void ratio-osmotic suction relationships of Specimens S3
1.06 Inundating fluid: 0.4M NaCl 共remolded with distilled water兲 and S5 共remolded with 4M sodium
S4
Remoulding fluid: 0.4M NaCl; chloride solution兲 during wetting path under an induced initial os-
1.04 Inundating fluid: Distilled water
motic suction difference of 19,807 kPa at a total vertical stress of
1.02 6.25 kPa
d ratio, e
S2
1.00
Void
0.98
identical initial matric suction, variations in initial osmotic suc-
0.96
tion difference induce different magnitudes of osmotic consolida-
0.94 tion and osmotic induced consolidation strains thereby impacting
0.92
the equilibrium water contents of the clay specimens.
Osmotic suction induced by chemical concentration gradients
0.90 between reservoir salt solution and soil-water is treated as an
100 1000 10000
equivalent net stress component, 共p兲 contributing to the total net
(b) Osmotic suction (kPa)
vertical stress. This equivalent net stress 共p兲 reduces the swell
potential of specimens due to reduction in reversible swelling
Fig. 5. 共a兲 Osmotic SWCCs of Specimens S2 共remolded with dis-
strains from increase in total net stress and irreversible macro-
tilled water兲 and S4 共remolded with 0.4M sodium chloride solution兲
structural component that decreases because distance of the stress
during wetting path under an induced initial osmotic suction differ-
point to the LC curve reduces.
ence of 1,958 kPa at a total vertical stress of 6.25 kPa; 共b兲 void
The osmotic SWCCs show two distinct regions. Region 1 is
ratio-osmotic suction relationships of Specimens S2 共remolded with
characterized by faster dissipation of matric suction than osmotic
distilled water兲 and S4 共remolded with 0.4M sodium chloride solu-
tion兲 during wetting path under an induced initial osmotic suction
suction, whereas, in Region 2, only osmotic suction dissipates.
difference of 1,958 kPa at a total vertical stress of 6.25 kPa
Inundating fluid
1.04
mens with larger initial osmotic suction 共S2 and S3兲 indicative of ater
Distilled water
smaller volume changes or swelling experienced by these speci- 0.4M NaCl S1
1.02 4.0M NaCl
mens. Furthermore, smaller void ratio changes occur during the
Sr = 100%
latter segment of the specimens 共Fig. 7兲. Tripathy et al. 共2002兲
1.00 Sr = 90%
observed similar trends during the swelling paths of compacted
S2
specimen inundated with distilled water.
Void ratio, e
0.98
Fig. 8 plots the water content-void ratio data of S2 and S4
specimens derived from Fig. 1共a and b兲. The S4 specimen attains S3
larger void ratio and water content at the end of swelling 共e 0.96
V
Experimental results illustrate that induced initial osmotic suction Fig. 7. Water content-void ratio swelling paths of Specimens S1, S2,
difference between reservoir salt solution and soil-water affect the and S3 under an induced initial osmotic suction difference of 0,
shape of the wetting SWCCs of compacted specimens. Despite 1,958, and 19,807 kPa at a total vertical stress of 6.25 kPa
0.98
soils, Wiley, New York.
Fredlund, D. G., and Xing, A. 共1994兲. “Equations for the soil-water char-
0.96 acteristic curve.” Can. Geotech. J., 31共4兲, 521–532.
V