Location

Arlington, Virginia

Date

14 Aug 2008, 2:15pm - 4:00pm

Abstract

In this study the simplified model tests that simulate air injection into saturated soils using air-injection probes, are conducted using the two different sizes of soil containers. The experiments using the small container are aimed to examine the rates and magnitudes of the soil desaturation driven by air injection, whilst those with the large container are performed to obtain not only the rates and magnitudes but also the distributions of the desaturated zones within the soil, and to examine influences on the desaturation process exerted by anisotropy of the soil in terms of flow transport. Obtained results indicate that the evolution of desaturation is strongly controlled by the soil permeabilities. Numerical analyses are also conducted using a multiphase flow simulator to describe the evolution of the soil desaturation, and to examine an applicability of the model as a prediction tool enabling an evolution of desaturation in situ to be followed with time and space. Predictions show a relatively good agreement with the measurements regarding the rates, magnitudes, and distribution of desaturation although predictions of the airflow rates underestimate the measurements for both small- and large-container experiments, and in the large container the early periods of the experiments are ill-replicated by the model.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Meeting Name

6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Document Version

Final Version

Rights

© 2008 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

File Type

text

Language

English

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Evolution of Soil Desaturation by Air-Injection Technique and Its Evaluation via Multiphase Flow Simulation

Arlington, Virginia

In this study the simplified model tests that simulate air injection into saturated soils using air-injection probes, are conducted using the two different sizes of soil containers. The experiments using the small container are aimed to examine the rates and magnitudes of the soil desaturation driven by air injection, whilst those with the large container are performed to obtain not only the rates and magnitudes but also the distributions of the desaturated zones within the soil, and to examine influences on the desaturation process exerted by anisotropy of the soil in terms of flow transport. Obtained results indicate that the evolution of desaturation is strongly controlled by the soil permeabilities. Numerical analyses are also conducted using a multiphase flow simulator to describe the evolution of the soil desaturation, and to examine an applicability of the model as a prediction tool enabling an evolution of desaturation in situ to be followed with time and space. Predictions show a relatively good agreement with the measurements regarding the rates, magnitudes, and distribution of desaturation although predictions of the airflow rates underestimate the measurements for both small- and large-container experiments, and in the large container the early periods of the experiments are ill-replicated by the model.