Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1103/PhysRevE.76.026311
Title (Primary) Hydraulic contacts controlling water flow across porous grains
Author Carminati, A.; Kaestner, A.; Fluhler, H.; Lehmann, P.; Or, D.; Lehmann, E.; Stampanoni, M.
Source Titel Physical Review E
Year 2007
Department HDG
Volume 76
Issue 2
Page From 026311
Language englisch
Abstract Water flow between porous grains varies widely depending on the water distribution in contacts between grains. The hydraulic behavior of contacts varies from highly conductive when water fills the contacts to a bottleneck to flow as water pressure drops and contact asperities rapidly drain. Such changes greatly impact the hydraulic conductivity of porous grain packs such as aggregated soil. The dominant driving force of water flow across contacts is capillarity, often quantified relative to gravity and viscous forces using the capillary and Bond numbers. For fast water infiltration, viscous forces dominate. For simplicity we modeled the water distribution between spherical porous grains whose surfaces are covered by spherical bumps of much smaller radii. We provide experimental evidence obtained by neutron radiography and synchrotron-based x-ray tomographic microscopy documenting transitions in the flow behavior across contacts
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=1697
Carminati, A., Kaestner, A., Fluhler, H., Lehmann, P., Or, D., Lehmann, E., Stampanoni, M. (2007):
Hydraulic contacts controlling water flow across porous grains
Phys. Rev. E 76 (2), 026311 10.1103/PhysRevE.76.026311