| From the view of soil hydrology, soil deformation (swelling and shrinking) is caused by the change of water content in soils when the clay mineral content in soil texture ranges from 30% to more than 80% (Aitchison and Holmes 1953). This creates a challenge in modeling water flow in macroporous soils, which has been a major concern in soil hydrology. In applying a suitable coordinate transformation, traditional equations for water flow in rigid soils might be applicable in deformable soils. Current expressions for the coordinate transformation between spatial and material coordinates are based on the assumption that the soil deformation occurs only in the vertical direction, isotropy, or lateral isotropy. In this thesis, with the introduction of a new dimensionless parameter, a new coordinate transformation expression is proposed so as to be suitable for anisotropically deforming soils. Generalized equations for water movement in unsaturated deformable soils are derived using three-dimensional and the axially symmetric cylindrical coordinate systems. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
