Monday, November 13, 2006
85-6

Hydraulic Conductivity and Volume Change of Active Clay Soils: Microscale Modeling and Measurements.

Markus Tuller, University of Idaho, Soil & Land Resources Division, Moscow, ID 83844-2339

Changes in volume and pore space induced by the shrink-swell behavior of clay minerals present a challenge to predictive modeling of hydraulic and swelling properties of clayey porous materials. A pore-scale framework that combines physico-chemical processes with pore-geometrical, hydrostatic, and hydrodynamic considerations toward prediction of constitutive hydraulic relationships for swelling porous media will be presented. Measurements of shrink-swell and hydraulic properties of clayey soils are used to evaluate model predictions. The roles of solution chemistry and confining conditions will be discussed.