Interfacial Parameters and Work of Adhesion in Soil-Liquid Systems

The surface/interfacial properties and soil-liquid interaction are studied to serve as a preliminary study to interpret engineering behavior of soils. To fully understand the nature of fine-grained soil-pore fluid interaction, the work of adhesion of liquids on kaolinite and bentonite is determined by means of measuring soil-liquid contact angle by the Wilhelmy Plate technique and horizontal capillarity. The results reveal that work of adhesion of soils with organic liquids varies considerably depending on the surface tension of the organic liquids (cohesive forces) as well as the liquid-soil adhesive forces. Further, surface parameters of the soils, $γSLW$⁠, $γS#x002B;$⁠, and $γS−$ are determined and compared with the values reported in the literature. The results reported in this study are compared with the previous ones in the literature. The agreement between the results of this study and reported results in the literature is good. Results also revealed that when the soil particles are wetted with water, organic liquids couldn't displace water molecules and change the soil microstructure. Based on the obtained results, it is concluded that studying the work of adhesion is a very useful way of understanding soil-liquid interaction and predicting engineering behavior of soils.