Abstract
Soil microstructure affects the physical and mechanical properties of a loess; current methods used for measuring pore size distribution (POSD) inside loess samples, however, have certain limitations. To investigate the intrinsic connection between soil–water characteristic curve (SWCC) and pore size distribution curves, water potential, moisture content, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tests on compacted loess with different dry densities were undertaken to obtain a SWCC and an NMR T2 curve. The Van Genuchten (VG) model was used to satisfactorily fit SWCC and POSD curves of samples with different dry densities. Results indicated that the shape and changing trend of SWCC and cumulative POSD curves were very similar. The evolution mechanism of SWCC was investigated by comparing POSD and SWCC of different dry density specimens. Thus, the modified VG model can fit the cumulative POSD very well. As SWCC and cumulative POSD curve fitting parameters were found to have a linear relationship, indicating that SWCC strongly depends on soil POSD, the SWCC curve can, therefore, be used to predict the POSD curve. The matric suction corresponding to the inflection point of the SWCC curve has a one-to-one correspondence with the relaxation time corresponding to the peak of the T2 curve. Based on the results, an equation for solving the transverse surface relaxation strength (\({\rho }_{2}\)) is proposed, which provides a new idea for the application of NMR in the soil field.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41931285), and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province, China (Grant No. 2019ZDLSF05-07).
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Wang, H., Ni, W., Li, X. et al. Predicting the pore size distribution curve based on the evolution mechanism of soil–water characteristic curve. Environ Earth Sci 81, 23 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-10138-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-10138-2