Heating unsaturated clay - An experimental and numerical investigation

This paper describes the application of a numerical model of coupled heat transfer, moisture transfer and deformation of unsaturated clay to the simulation of a laboratory heating experiment. The theoretical formulation accommodates liquid flow, vapour flow, bulk air flow and heat transfer as the transport processes, with deformation described by a non-linear elastic stress/strain model based on a state surface approach. The experimental work has been performed on an unsaturated Spanish montmorillonite clay. Encouraging correlation is obtained between experimental and numerical results indicating that the overall modelling approach being pursued is qualitatively correct.