04
2026-03
Literature Review | Professor Xu Li's Team at Beijing Jiaotong University Journal of Hydrology: Characterization of Pore Water Distribution Characteristics in Silty Clay During Compaction, Saturation, and Drying Processes Based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Technology
Characterizing pore water distribution (PWD) is essential for understanding the hydraulic and mechanical behavior of unsaturated soil. This study employs Low-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) relaxometry to quantitatively investigate the PWD evolution in compacted silty clay under varying compaction degrees, initial water contents, and drying processes. By calibrating the T₂ relaxation time against Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP) data, we established a robust conversion model to transform NMR signal amplitudes into pore water volume across specific pore radii. The results delineate three distinct pore water categories: adsorbed water (<0.05 μm), intra-aggregate water (0.05–1.0 μm), and inter-aggregate water (>1.0 μm). Furthermore, by integrating the Young-Laplace theory with cumulative pore water distribution curves derived from NMR, we propose two predictive methods (Saturated Cumulative Curve Method and Unsaturated Envelope Method) for estimating the Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) across a wide suction range. This study demonstrates that low-field NMR is a powerful technique for non-destructive, quantitative monitoring of pore fluid dynamics in geotechnical applications.