Pore size distribution and soil water suction curve from micro-tomography measurements and real 3-D digital microstructure of a compacted granular media by using direct numerical simulation technique

Predictive measurement of capillary pressure - saturation relationship of a porous media is obtained based on the actual microstructure obtained from high resolution tomography data. X-ray micro-tomography provided a high contrast for silica phase, and actual geometry of sand particles and void distribution. The morphological opening (erosion + dilation) is used to get a pore size distribution using the concept of granulometry. Full-morphology approach is used to model the quasi-static wetting and non-wetting phase distribution of a primary drainage process. Predicted soil water suction curves for a compacted silica sand sample is presented along with the effects of assumed contact angle between water and silica surface.