I am mainly looking for the reaction that may affect the mechanical performance of the soil.
Thanks
Dear Mr. Sangsefidi:
your question is too general in its essence and tries to be all embracing. Climate, parent material etc. have such a strong impact as the hydraulic regime and the geomorphology. You ask about opinions on chemical reactions and refer to physical processes leading to mechanical performance.
What is it all about? Be more focused, please.
Harald G. Dill
You may read the book "physical hydrology" by jury and horton. Drying and wetting is all physical process, no chemical reaction. It is more about pore size and capillary action. When you are wetting, smaller pores, because of it high affinity to water (high capillary) will get the water first, then the larger pores. During drying, water will drain from larger pore first, then smaller pore. The capillary action is related to surface tension, and fluid and pore physical properties. There is no chemical reaction going on.
Dear Professor Dill,
Thank you for your response. You are right. My question is so general.
To be more specific please consider a special soil that is a combination of 45% Gravel, 30% Sand, 15% silt and 10% Clay. I am looking to see what happen to soil properties (from chemical aspect) when some water infiltrates in the soil layer and then disappears (this cycle repeat for several times with fresh water) . I know there are a lot of issues that may influence on these reactions, but please consider a soil with a moisture content of 5 percent under these two conditions.
1- The condition in which, for example, during one hour the soil becomes saturated and during, for example, 10 days it reaches a steady Moisture Content equal to 5%.
2- The condition in which the soil reaches to a Moisture Content of 50% during 5 days and then within 30 days the Moisture Content decrease to the steady content of 5%.
These conditions repeat in a cyclic pattern.
I impatiently want to know if there will be any chemical reaction in these two conditions that affect the Mechanical and Physical properties of the soil. In addition, I know that the type of the clay affects the results, so I am eager to know what kind of clay has a fundamental effect on the soil properties considering these cycles? and also, would it be possible to convert the materials to each other under these conditions (for example converting Sand to Clay or changing a kind of Clay material to another kind of Clay)?
Kind regards,
Ebrahim
Dear Mohiuddin,
I beg to differ with your response. There are a lot of chemical reaction when water ingresses to a soil. Hydrolyses, reduction and oxidation and ... are some of them. Some of these reactions change the structure of materials and convert them to the other kind of materials.
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