Behavior of Swelling Clays: A Discrete Element Study

摘要

The mechanisms underlying swelling of clays during water saturation still remain poorly understood. Swelling is generally understood to result from interlayer forces (in the range of small particle separations) and double-layer repulsive forces (in the range of large particle separations). Recently, a systematic molecular dynamic study was conducted (see the companion paper entitled "Behavior of Swelling Clays: A Molecular Dynamic Study by Amarasinghe and Anandarajah) (a) to develop an understanding of the interlayer and double-layer forces and (b) to develop a force-displacement relation covering the full range of small to large particle separations. In the present paper, the force-displacement relation developed from the results of the molecular dynamic study, as well as the previously developed relations for the double-layer repulsive force and van der Waals attractive force, are used in a discrete element simulation to study the swelling behavior of clays in a comprehensive manner.