Fractal characteristics of pore structure of compacted bentonite studied by ESEM and MIP methods

0524978 - ÚPT 2021 RIV DE eng J - Journal Article
Sun, H. - Mašín, D. - Najser, J. - Neděla, Vilém - Navrátilová, Eva
Fractal characteristics of pore structure of compacted bentonite studied by ESEM and MIP methods.
Acta Geotechnica. Roč. 15, č. 6 (2020), s. 1655-1671. ISSN 1861-1125. E-ISSN 1861-1133
Institutional support: RVO:68081731
Keywords : bentonite * ESEM * fractal dimension * microstructure * MIP * suction
OECD category: Geology
Impact factor: 5.856, year: 2020
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11440-019-00857-z

In this paper, we aim to clarify microstructure of bentonite from Cerny vrch deposit in the Czech Republic. We adopt results of ESEM and MIP experiments performed at various suctions along wetting and drying paths on bentonite samples compacted from powder to two different initial dry densities. The data were used for quantification of fractal dimension characteristics of pores of different sizes. Two different methods of calculating fractal dimension were used for MIP data, and one method was used for evaluation of ESEM images. Fractal dimensions obtained from MIP data, combined with the measured pore size density functions, allowed us to identify two different pore families: micropores and macropores. Macropores can be further subdivided into fine macropores and coarse macropores based on fractal analysis. The pore systems were further distinguished by different responses to suction changes and to compaction effort. In general, we observed slight increase in fractal dimension with increasing suction and with increasing dry density.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0309189