Estimation of Soil Water Retention Curve Based on Pore Freezing Kinetics

Abstract The effect of pore radius can be observed during different processes that happen in geological media, taking a fundamental role during inter-pore ice formation and soil freezing. This can be expressed by the freezing characteristic function that relates chemical potential equilibrium and soil pore size distribution through the use of the water retention curve and the equilibrium temperature. By the analysis of temperature time evolution obtained for an undrained laboratory freezing test, and a Finite Element thermo – hydraulic model calibration, the estimation of the soil water retention curve was performed. A comparison between laboratory and the best fitted results were made and an acceptable agreement was observed between the estimated SWRC and the measured one, supporting the hypothesis of SWRC prediction through a relatively simple and rapid test. Furthermore, this relation allows to propose a novel test to estimate the soil water retention curve based on energy balance equations and freezing kinetics.