Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The effects of soil shrinkage during centrifuge tests on SWCC and soil microstructure measurements

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correction to this article was published on 12 November 2020

This article has been updated

Abstract

Significant soil shrinkage occurred during SWCC (soil-water characteristic curve) measurement using centrifuge methods and thus affects the soil microstructure. This paper deals with an experimental investigation aimed at correcting for SWCC measurements with soil shrinkage considered and at studying the evolution of the microstructure induced by soil consolidation along drying path. Microstructure evolution of samples subjected to different pressure heads is determined using mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The relationship between the soil microstructural features and the soil mechanical and hydraulic properties is explained from the microstructure point of view. The results show that after the centrifugation ended, the height shrinkages of the soil samples were 10.36, 8.86, 6.39, 4.16, and 2.37 mm, while the corresponding initial bulk densities were 1.30, 1.36, 1.46, 1.55, and 1.68 g/cm3. The corrected volumetric water contents were higher than the uncorrected values at a specific pressure head. The soil shrinkage, void ratio, and degree of saturation changed at a decreasing rate as the pressure head gradually increased. These changes occurred because of the greater compressibility of the macropores, which allowed for consolidation, and because the water in the macropores was removed at a relatively low pressure head. The drastic decrease in the pore volume and the dominant diameter of such macropores inhibited further and obvious soil consolidation at a higher pressure head and inhibited the flow of water out of the soil matrix.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

  • 12 November 2020

    The original version of Fig.��7 included one incorrect image.

References

  • Ahuja LR, Fiedler F, Dunn GH, Benjamin JG, Garrison A (1998) Changes in soil water retention curves due to tillage and natural reconsolidation. Soil Sci Soc Am J 62(5):1228–1233. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1998.03615995006200050011x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albrecht BA, Benson CH (2001) Effect of desiccation on compacted natural clays. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 127:67–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbour SL (1998) Nineteenth Canadian geotechnical colloquium: the soil–water characteristic curve: a historical perspective. Can Geotech J 35(5):873–894

    Google Scholar 

  • Bittelli M, Flury M (2009) Errors in water retention curves determined with pressure plates. Soil Sci Soc Am J 73:1453–1560

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks RH, Corey AT (1964) Hydraulic properties of porous media. Hydrol. Pap. 3, Colo. State Univ., Fort Collins, Colo

  • Burdine NT (1952) Relative permeability calculations from pore-size distribution data. Trans Am Inst Min Metall Pet Eng 198:71–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen YL (2018) Soil–water retention curves derived as a function of soil dry density. Geo Hazards 1:3–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Ciocca F, Lunati I, Parlange MB (2014) Effects of the water retention curve on evaporation from arid soils. Geophys Res Lett 41:3110–3116

    Google Scholar 

  • Delage P, Audiguier M, Cui YJ, Howat M (1996) The microstructure of a compacted silt. Can Geotech J 33:150–158

    Google Scholar 

  • Delage, P, Romero E, Tarantino A (2008) Recent developments in the techniques of controlling and measuring suction in unsaturated soils. In Unsaturated Soils: Advances in Geo-Engineering-Toll et al. (eds). Taylor and Francis Group, London: 33–52

  • Dexter AR, Czyż EW, Richard G (2012) Equilibrium, non-equilibrium and residual water: consequences for soil water retention. Geoderma 177-178:63–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Dexter AR (2004) Soil physical quality part 1. theory, effects of soil texture, density, and organic matter, and effects on root growth. Geoderma 120(3–4):201–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2003.09.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fang XW, Shen CN (2013) Quantitative analysis of microstructure characteristics of Pucheng loess in Shaanxi province. Chin J Rock Mech Eng 32:1917–1925 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleureau JM, Kheirbek Saoud S, Soemitro R, Taibi S (1993) Behaviour of clayey soil on drying-wetting paths. Can Geotech J 30(2):287–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredlund DG, Xing A (1994) Equations for the soil-water characteristic curve. Can Geotech J 31:521–532

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredlund MD, Fredlund DG, and Wilson GW (1997) Prediction of the soil-water characteristic curve from grain-size distribution and volume–mass properties. In proceedings of the 3rd Brazilian symposium on unsaturated soils, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil April 22-25

  • Fredlund MD, Fredlund DG, Wilson GW (2000) An equation to represent grain-size distribution. Can Geotech J 37(4):817–827

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredlund DG (2002) Use of soil–water characteristic curves in the implementation of unsaturated soil mechanics. In: Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Unsat. Soils, Recife, March, Brazil 3:10–13

  • Fredlund DG, Rahardjo H (1993) Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils. John Wiley and Sons, New York. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470172759

  • Fu XL, Shao MG, Lu DQ, Wang HM (2011) Soil water characteristic curve measurement without bulk density changes and its implications in the estimation of soil hydraulic properties. Geoderma 167-168:1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuentes C, Haverkamp R, Parlange JY (1992) Parameters constraints on closed-form soil water relationships. J Hydrol 134(1):117–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Gao HB, Shao MG (2015) Effects of temperature changes on soil hydraulic properties. Soil Tillage Res 153:145–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner RA (1937) The method of measuring the capillary tension of soil moisture over a wide moisture range. Soil Sci 43:277–283

    Google Scholar 

  • Gee GW, Ward AL, Zhang ZF et al (2002) The influence of hydraulic nonequilibrium on pressure plate data. Vadose Zone J 1:172–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Ito M, Azam S (2013) Engineering properties of a vertisolic expansive soil deposit. Eng Geol 152:10–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiang Y, Chen WW et al (2017) Influence of initial dry density and water content on the soil–water characteristic curve and suction stress of a reconstituted loess soil. Bull Eng Geol Environ 76:1085–1095

    Google Scholar 

  • Khanzode RM, Vanapalli SK, Fredlund DG (2002) Measurement of soil-water characteristic curves for fine-grained soils using a small-scale centrifuge. Can Geotech J 39:1209–1217

    Google Scholar 

  • Kooistra MJ, Tovey NK (1994) Effects of compaction on soilmicrostructure. In: Soane BD, Van Ouwerkerk C (eds) Soil compaction in crop production. Elsevier Science; Developments in Agricultural Engineering, 11, pp 91–111

  • Kravchenko C et al (2013) Relationships between intra-aggregate pore structures and distributions of Escherichia coli within soil macro-aggregates. Appl Soil Ecol 63:134–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Li XA, Li LC (2017) Quantification of the pore structures of Malan loess and the effects on loess permeability and environmental significance, Shaanxi Province, China: an experimental study. Environ Earth Sci 76:523. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-017-6855-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li XA, Li LC, Song YX, et al. (2019) Characterization of the mechanisms underlying loess collapsibility for land-creation project in Shaanxi Province,China-a study from a micro perspective. Eng Geol 249:77–88

  • Li P, Vanapalli S, Li T (2016) Review of collapse triggering mechanism of collapsible soils due to wetting. J Rock Mech Geotech Eng 8:256–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2015.12.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li P, Li TL, Vanapalli SK (2018) Prediction of soil–water characteristic curve for Malan loess in Loess Plateau of China. J Cent South Univ 25:432–447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-018-3748-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li X, Zhang LM (2009) Characterization of dual-structure pore-size distribution of soil. Can Geotech J 46:129–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu Z, Liu F, Ma F et al (2015) Collapsibility, composition, and microstructure of loess in China. Can Geotech J 53:673–686. https://doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2015-0285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lloret A, Villar MV, Sa’nchez, M., Gens, A., Pintado, X. & Alonso, E. E. (2003) Mechanical behaviour of heavily compacted bentonite under high suction changes. Geotechnique 53(1):27–40

  • Loffe A (1934) To the theory of the force field in centrifugal modeling. J of Theoretical Physics V.4(8)

  • Lu N, Dong Y (2017) Correlation between soil-shrinkage curve and water-retention characteristics. J Geotech Geoenviron 143(04017054):9. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001741

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez C, Pachepsky Y, Vereecken H (2014) Effect of soil hydraulic properties on the relationship between the spatial mean and variability of soil moisture. J Hydrol 516(4):154–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.01.069

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell JK, Soga K (2005) Fundamentals of soil behavior. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Monroy R, Zdravkovic L, Ridley A (2010) Evolution of microstructure in compacted London clay during wetting and loading. Geotechnique 60(2):105–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Mualem Y (1976) A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media. Water Resour Res 12(3):513–522

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowamooz H, Masrouri F (2010) Suction variations and soil fabric of swelling compacted soils. J Rock Mech Geotech Eng 01:129–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Osinubi KJ, Bello AA (2011) Soil-water characteristics curves for reddish brown tropical soil. Electron J Geotech Eng 16:1–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Oualmakran M, Mercatoris BCN, Francois B (2016) Pore size distribution of a compacted silty soil after compaction, saturation and loading can. Geotech J 53(12):1902–1909

    Google Scholar 

  • Peng X, Horn RF (2007) Anisotropic shrinkage and swelling of some organic and inorganic soils. Eur J Soil Sci 58(1):98–107. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2389.2006.00808.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peron H, Hueckel T, Laloui L (2007) An improved volume measurement for determining soil water retention curves. Geotech Test J 30(1):1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Peron H, Hueckel T, Laloui L, Hu LB (2009) Fundamentals of dessication cracking of fine-grained soil: experimental characterisation and mechanisms identification. Can Geotech J 46(10):1177–1201

    Google Scholar 

  • Pham HQ, Fredlund DG (2008) Equations for the entire soil-water characteristic curve of a volume change soil. Can Geotech J 45(4):443–453

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahardjo H, Satyanaga A et al (2012) Soil-water characteristic curves of gap-graded soils. Eng Geol 125:102–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahardjo H, Satyanaga A, Mohamed H et al (2019) Comparison of soil–water characteristic curves from conventional testing and combination of small-scale centrifuge and dew point methods. Geotech Geol Eng 37:659

    Google Scholar 

  • Rao B, Singh DN (2012) Establishing soil-water characteristic curve and determining unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of kaolin by ultracentrifugation and electrical measurements. Can Geotech J 49(12):1369–1377

    Google Scholar 

  • Reginato RJ, van Bavel CHM (1962) Pressure cell for soil cores. Soil Sci Soc Am J 26:1–3

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards LA (1948) Porous plate apparatus for measuring moisture retention and transmission by soils. Soil Sci 66:105–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Romero E, Simms PH (2008) Microstructure investigation in unsaturated soils: a review with special attention to contribution of mercury intrusion porosimetry and environmental scanning electron microscopy. Geotech Geol Eng 26(6):705–727

    Google Scholar 

  • Romero E et al (2011) An insight into the water retention properties of compacted clayey soils. Geotechnique 61(4):313–328

    Google Scholar 

  • Romero E, Gens A, Lloret A (1999) Water permeability, water retention and microstructure of unsaturated boom clay. Eng Geol 54:117–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Russel MB, Richards LA (1938) The determination of soil moisture energy relations by centrifugation. Soil Sci Soc Proc 3:65–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Schofield, R.K. The pF of water in soil. Trans. 3rd. Int. Cong. Soil Sci 1935, 2, 37–48

  • Shang MT, Feng J, Liu PG, ShiY (2009) On formulas for soil suction and optimum centrifugal time by use of SWCC. J Hohai Univ (Natural Sciences) 37(1):12–15 (in chinese)

  • Simms PH, Yanful EK (2001) Measurement and estimation of pore shrinkage and pore distribution in a clayey till during soil-water characteristic curve tests. Can Geotech J 38:741–754

    Google Scholar 

  • Smagin AV (2012) Column-centrifugation method for determining water retention curves of soils and disperse sediments. Eurasian Soil Sci 45(4). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229312040126

  • Sun DA, Gao Y, Zhou AA, Sheng DC (2015) Soil–water retention curves and microstructures of undisturbed and compacted Guilin lateritic clay. Bull Eng Geol Environ 75:781–791

    Google Scholar 

  • Than VD, Aimedieu P, Pereira JM, et al. (2016) Macro-microscopic one-dimensional compression of wet granular soils by experimental investigation. E3S web of conferences 9,06001. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20160906001

  • Tripathy KS, Subba Rao KS, Fredlund DG (2002) Water content - void ratio swell shrink paths of compacted expensive soils. Can Geotech J 39(4):938–959

    Google Scholar 

  • van Genuchten MT (1980) A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci Soc Amer J 44:892–898

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanapalli SK, Fredlund DG, Pufahl DE (1996) The relationship between the soil-water characteristic curve and the unsaturated shear strength of a compacted glacial till. Geotech Test J 19:259–268. https://doi.org/10.1520/GTJ10351J

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vero SE, Healy, Mark G et al (2016) A methodological framework to determine optimum durations for the construction of soil water characteristic curves using centrifugation. IJAFR. 55(2):91–99. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijafr-2016-0009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Villar MV, Lloret A (2004) Influence of temperature on the hydro-mechanical behaviour of a compacted bentonite. Appl Clay Sci 26(1–4):337–350

    Google Scholar 

  • Weninger T, Bodner G et al (2018) Combination of measurement methods for a wide-range description of hydraulic soil properties. Water. 10(8):1021. https://doi.org/10.3390/w10081021

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wójcik E et al (2019) Microstructural changes of expansive clays during dehydration caused by suction pressure-a case study of Miocene to Pliocene clays from Warsaw (Poland). Acta Geol Pol 69(3):465–488. https://doi.org/10.24425/agp.2019.126442

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xing XG, Li YB, Ma XY (2018) Water retention curve correction using changes in bulk density during data collection. Eng Geol 233:231–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhai Q, Rahardjo H, Satyanaga A (2017) Effects of residual suction and residual water content on the estimation of permeability function. Geoderma 303:165–177

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao Y, Cui YJ et al (2017) Effects of void ratio and grain size distribution on water retention properties of compacted infilled joint soils. Soils Found 57:50–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou WH, Yuen KV, Tan F (2014) Estimation of soil-water characteristic curve and relative permeability for granular soils with different initial dry densities. Eng Geol 179:1–9

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to sincerely thank the editor as well as the reviewers of this paper, who put forward useful comments that improved the manuscript substantially.

Funding

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41572264, 41172255, and 41440044) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 300102269724).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geology Engineering & Geomatics, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710054, Shaanxi, China

    Lincui Li, Xi-An Li, Li Wang, Bo Hong, Jianfeng Shi & Jianqiang Sun

  2. Open Research Laboratory of Geotechnical Engineering, Ministry of Land and Resources, Xi’an, 710054, Shaanxi, China

    Xi-An Li

Authors
  1. Lincui Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xi-An Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Li Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Bo Hong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jianfeng Shi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jianqiang Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Lincui Li conceived and designed the experiments. Xi-An Li supervised the entire work. Lincui Li, Li Wang, and Bo Hong performed the lab experiments. Lincui Li analyzed the data and wrote the paper. Jianfeng Shi and Jianqiang Sun conducted sampling.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xi-An Li.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Availability of data and material

Not applicable.

Code availability

Not applicable.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, L., Li, XA., Wang, L. et al. The effects of soil shrinkage during centrifuge tests on SWCC and soil microstructure measurements. Bull Eng Geol Environ 79, 3879–3895 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-020-01786-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-020-01786-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation