Use of synthesised polymers for the development of new osmotic tensiometers


Liu H. Rahardjo H. Satyanaga A. Du H.
16 November 2021ICE Publishing

Geotechnique
2021#73Issue 6544 - 552 pp.

Compared with conventional water-filled tensiometers, polymer-filled osmotic tensiometers (OTs) can measure a higher matric suction by increasing the osmotic pressure of the water inside the tensiometer. The measuring range of an OT is equal to the osmotic pressure of water inside the OT. All previous research has used commercial polymers in developing OTs and the mechanism of long-term pressure decay of OTs was not found. In this study, polymers including polyacrylamide (PAM) and sodium polyacrylate (NaPA) with different degrees of cross-linking were synthesised by ultraviolet polymerisation to develop new OTs. Long-term pressure variations of OTs indicated that the pressure decay was more likely due to the stress relaxation of polymer materials instead of polymer leakage. PAM-filled OTs have a faster stress relaxation behaviour than NaPA-filled OTs, so that they can keep constant pressure (i.e. constant measuring range) for a long time and there is no need for pressure correction based on the pressure decay rate. However, the measuring range of PAM-filled OTs is lower than that of NaPA-filled OTs. The result of matric suction measurements demonstrated that the proposed OTs can be used to measure matric suction both in low and high ranges with fast response and high accuracy.

field instrumentation , monitoring , suction

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Environmental Process Modelling Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Also Interdisciplinary Graduate School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Environmental Process Modelling Centre
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

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