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Capillary rise method for the measurement of the contact angle of soils

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Abstract

The contact angle quantitatively describes the contact on the liquid–solid interface and is thus critical to many physical processes involving interactions between soils and water. However, the role of the contact angle in soils is far from being adequately recognized. This paper reports a comprehensive study on the application of the capillary rise method (CRM) to measure the contact angles of soils. The deviations of analytical solutions to various forms of the Lucas–Washburn equation were presented to offer a detailed study on the theoretical basis for applying CRM to soils, which is absent in existing studies. The disadvantages of the conventional CRM investigations were demonstrated with experiments. Based on a comparative study, a modified CRM was proposed based on the analytical solution to one form of the Lucas–Washburn equation. This modified CRM exhibited a reliable performance on numerous unsieved and sieved (different average particle sizes) specimens made of a subgrade soil and a silicon dioxide sand. Procedures for the specimen preparation were designed and strictly followed, and innovative apparatuses for the preparation, transport, and accommodation of soil specimens were fabricated to ensure repeatability. For the modified CRM, experimental results for unsieved specimens exhibited good repeatability, while for sieved soils, clear trends were observed in the variations of the contact angle with particle size. Contact angles much greater than zero were observed for all of the tested soil specimens. The results indicate that the assumption of perfect wettability, which is adopted in many existing geotechnical studies involving the contact angle, is unrealistic.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Dr. Adin Mann in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University for the inspiring discussions on contact angle measurements with the CRM and the access to the surface engineering instruments. We also thank Dr. Vladimir Gurau for the laboratory orientation and for sharing MATLAB code for data processing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Dillman 201F, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA

    Zhen Liu

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Bingham 206, Cleveland, OH, 44106-7201, USA

    Xiong Yu

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Bingham 259, Cleveland, OH, 44106-7201, USA

    Lin Wan

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  1. Zhen Liu
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Correspondence to Xiong Yu.

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Liu, Z., Yu, X. & Wan, L. Capillary rise method for the measurement of the contact angle of soils. Acta Geotech. 11, 21–35 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-014-0352-x

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