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Microstructural evolution of expansive clay during drying–wetting cycle

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Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation on the microstructural evolutions of expansive clay during a drying–wetting cycle, including pore size distribution (PSD) via mercury intrusion porosimetry and water distribution via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The soil water characteristic curves at different soil densities and soil shrinkage curve are also obtained, and a threshold suction can be identified to distinguish the adsorptive and capillary regimes of pore water. Combined with the water distribution obtained by the NMR technique, the evolutions of the adsorptive water and capillary water during drying–wetting cycle were addressed. The measured PSD curves of the expansive soils at different suctions showed two distinct peaks, corresponding to micropores and macropores, respectively. Both variations of macropores and micropores are irreversible during the wetting–drying cycle, which partly explain the adsorptive water content decreasing when the suction is small.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grants 41972290, 41877269 and 51639008, and the Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 2017CFB225.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, Hubei, China

    Tiantian Ma, Changfu Wei & Chuanqin Yao

  2. College of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, Guangxi, China

    Changfu Wei

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Chuanqin Yao

  4. Wuchang University of Technology, Wuhan, 430223, Hubei, China

    Panpan Yi

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  1. Tiantian Ma
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Correspondence to Tiantian Ma.

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Ma, T., Wei, C., Yao, C. et al. Microstructural evolution of expansive clay during drying–wetting cycle. Acta Geotech. 15, 2355–2366 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-020-00938-4

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