Theoretical and experimental study of pendular regime in unsaturated granular media

Gérard Gagneux (1) , Olivier Millet (1) , Boleslaw Mielniczuk (1, 2) , Moulay Saïd El Youssoufi (2, 3, 4)

1 LaSIE - Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Ingénieur pour l'Environnement - UMR 7356
2 LMGC - Laboratoire de Mécanique et Génie Civil
3 SIGECO - Structures Innovantes, Géomatériaux, ECOconstruction
4 MIST - Laboratoire de micromécanique et intégrité des structures

This article addresses the experimental study of capillary bridge properties with the use of analytical calculation of bridge profile, based on solution of Young–Laplace equation. Using the measurements of some parameters as the contact angle, half-filling angle and the neck radius of the capillary bridge between two spherical particles of radius r, the shape of the bridge is estimated using theoretical solutions of Young–Laplace equation. The corresponding analytical solution is superposed and compared with image data.

Mots clés: capillary bridge; Young–Laplace equation; inverse problem; experimental measurement

Domaines: Matériaux; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Géotechnique

Gérard Gagneux, Olivier Millet, Boleslaw Mielniczuk, Moulay Saïd El Youssoufi. Theoretical and experimental study of pendular regime in unsaturated granular media. European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, 2016, ⟨10.1080/19648189.2016.1167782⟩. ⟨hal-01405307⟩