| Use of transparent synthetic soils to visualize flow and deformation problems has been recently developed. This study proposes a new water-based transparent aquabeads suitable for modeling the geotechnical properties of natural soils.;A comprehensive study of the geotechnical properties of several types of Aquabeads, including permeability, compressibility, and yield stress were performed in order to understand the feasibility of deformation and flow modeling using transparent Aquabeads. The geotechnical properties of Aquabeads were similar to those of sands & silts in permeability, with hydraulic conductivity in the 10-2 to 10-5 cm/sec range, and very soft clay in compressibility and yield stress.;Soil-structure interaction beneath a reinforced soil foundation was studied to illustrate the beneficial use of Aquabeads in research studies. The bearing capacity of a foundation on a model made of Aquabeads was observed to increases with the presence of geogrid. The results are similar to behavior observed for natural soils. There is an optimum number of the geogrid layers which is 3 for the bearing capacity improvement of Aquabeads. The optimal geogrid layer length for bearing capacity improvement was found to be form the width of the footing. The maximum benefit of geogrid-reinforcement was achievd when the geogrid depth is 0.75 of the footing width. The maximum benefit of geogrid-reinforcement was achieved when the geogrid vertical spacing is set to 0.7B. It is conducted that Aquabeads is suitable for simulating deformation problem in very weak soils.;The feasibility of using Aquabeads to visualize geoenvironmental contamination problems was also investigated in this study. Surfactant flushing tests were conducted using a layered soil system and two contaminants, mineral oil and motor oil. Several surfactants were investigated using phase behavior tests, and Triton X-100 was selected. For Mineral oil, the optimal surfactant solution consisted of 0.025% Triton X-100, mixed with 0.25% Sec-Butanol Alcohol and 0.03% Xanthan Gum to increase viscosity. For Motor oil, the optimal surfactant solution consisted of 0.025% Triton X-100, mixed with 2.5% Sec-Butanol Alcohol and 0.03% Xanthan Gum. Once the optimal surfactant solution was found, it was used to achieve a recovery ratio of 88.5% of motor oil and 95.8% for mineral oil.;Aquabeads has a number of advantages over available transparent synthetic soils for modeling flow. First, it is water based. Second, it possesses similar hydraulic characteristics to natural soils. Third, it is compatible with water, oil, selected surfactants, and alcohols used for modeling multiphase flow. Finally, it does not suffer from transparency degradation in large-scale models. Therefore, it is ideal for visualizing 2-D flow, and soil contamination geoenvironmental problems. And also, it is suitable for simulating deformation problem in very weak soils. |
