Determinação das propriedades hidráulicas em solos não saturados utilizando uma centrifuga de pequenas dimensões

• Autor(a) principal: Guimarães, Lucas Martins
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/845
• topic: Condutividade hidráulica não saturada; Solos - Permeabilidade - Equipamento e acessórios; Mecânica do solo; Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity; Soil - Permeability - Equipment and accessories; Soil Mechanics; CNPQ::ENGENHARIAS::ENGENHARIA CIVIL::GEOTECNICA

In geotechnical problems of flow, the main variables that characterize the hydraulic behavior in an unsaturated medium, is the water retention curve (WRC) and the hydraulic conductivity function (HCF) of the soil. Experimental determination of these properties is generally time-consuming and costly, leading professionals to use simplifications that may eventually prejudice the projects, increasing costs and compromising safety. In order to help reduce this difficulty, in this thesis, a procedure and equipment adapted into a small centrifuge commonly used in medical applications were developed, allowingto obtain hydraulic properties (WRC and HCF) of soils in a much shorter time. The technique involves exposing soil samples initially saturated to a circular motion, resulting in a centripetal acceleration and a mass force sufficient to overcome capillarity and force fluid drainage. The equipment is able to simultaneously obtain four WRCs and four HCFs. To verify the performance of the new equipment, two soils with different characteristics, one clayey sand (SC) and a high plasticity clay (CH), were tested. The WRCs obtained with the centrifugewere compared with ones obtained by traditional methods offilter paper and pressure plate. Comparisons were appropriate up to suctions of the order of 500 kPa, the current limit of the equipment developed. For soils that require higher suctions, a proposal was made to add to the data obtained with the centrifuge, a point given by the filter paper close to the residual moisture of the soil. The methodology for obtaining the HCF is of the transient type using multiple steps, in which one applies an increase in the matric suction value, and measure the volume of water that flows out of the specimen. The HCFs obtained by centrifugal method were compared with the one given by the theoretical model of van Genuchten- Mualen and points directly measured with a flexible wall permeameter and constant flow application developed by Guimarãeset. al. (2008).Comparisons were good, especially for the thicker texture soil (SC). The maximum times to obtain the WRCs and HCFs were two days for soil SC and three days for soil CH. The methodology is efficient and reduces, significantly, the time required to obtain hydraulic properties of soils.