Abstract:

The drying process of the soil is the evaporation of water contented. That
cause the changes in soil properties resulting many problems related to
geotechnical engineering and construction. To understand as well as
control those issues, there are researches carried out to study the kinetics
of drying water in soils. There are many factors which manage and
influences the soil drying.: the ambient conditions, the pore pressure, the
soil structures etc. In this study, the drying tests on silty soil MLD are
performed to investigate the impacts of dry density of soil on drying
kinetics. Two methods of drying tests are used: convective and non-
convective. The convective drying tests are executed in natural ambient
conditions with the flux air while the non-convective tests are performed
using saline solution which creates the stable relative humidity in the
isolated drying chamber. Analysing from the mass loss evolution of
sample during the drying test, the drying rate curves, and mass transfer
coefficients are obtained. The saturated and unsaturated soil samples are
tested and compared to examine the necessity of saturation in
preparation step. Then, drying tests using samples prepared with different
initial dry densities are performed. Their resulting desaturation curves and
mass transfer coefficients are put in comparison to discovering the
change of drying kinetics versus the soil density. Finally, the test in which
ambient temperature and relative humidity are monitored in parallel with
a drying process is performed in order to evaluate the effects of
instabilities of environment conditions on drying kinetics study.