Abstract
Soil–water retention curve (SRWC), also called soil moisture characteristic, is used for simulation models of soil water storage or soil aggregate stability. The present study addresses the modeling of SRWC with particular attention paid to hysteresis effects of water filling and draining the pores attributed to ink-bottle effects. For that purpose, an idealized pore size distribution previously developed for predicting water sorption isotherms on cementitious materials, and which can consider the double porosity structure of soils, is used. The input data of the model are assessed only from mercury intrusion porosimetry tests (MIP) and from grain size distribution (GSD). The hysteretic behavior of SRWC is reproduced in a satisfactory way. The model can also predict the specific surface area.
Article Highlights
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The water retention properties of soils are predicted basing on an original representation of the pore structure
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Geometrical and morphological aspects of pore structure are considered to describe the hysteretic behavior of SRWC.
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The input data of the model parameters are obtained by characterizing only both pore size and grain size distribution.
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Ranaivomanana, H., Das, G. & Razakamanantsoa, A. Modeling of Hysteretic Behavior of Soil–Water Retention Curves Using an Original Pore Network Model. Transp Porous Med 142, 559–584 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-022-01759-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-022-01759-7