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Article
Contact angle of soil minerals: A molecular dynamics study
Computers and Geotechnics
  • Chao Zhang, Michigan Technological University
  • Zhen Liu, Michigan Technological University
  • Peng Deng, Colorado School of Mines
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-10-2016
Abstract

In this paper, molecular dynamics was employed to study the wetting behavior of soil minerals. The basic concepts and methodologies of molecular dynamics were briefly summarized. A specific modeling and simulation procedure was presented to study the contact angles of solids using molecular dynamics. This procedure was employed to simulate the contact angles of three minerals, which are common in sand and silt fractions, i.e. α-quartz, orthoclase and muscovite. The simulated contact angle was 29° for α-quartz; 36° for orthoclase; and 116° for muscovite, which shows good agreement with the reported experimental or numerical results and thus substantiates the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed method. The simulation results also reveal that the contact angles of these minerals are considerably larger than zero and quite different from each other.

Publisher's Statement

Publisher's version of record: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2016.01.012

Citation Information
Chao Zhang, Zhen Liu and Peng Deng. "Contact angle of soil minerals: A molecular dynamics study" Computers and Geotechnics Vol. 75 (2016) p. 48 - 56
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/zhen-liu/1/