Fractal dimension characterization for soils through practical Mc-D Method

Abstract

Fractal dimension has been an important instrument to characterize porous materials like soils, allowing to expand knowledge of soil properties, such as porosity and water infiltration. Alterations in the well-known values of fractal dimension of soils may indicate, for example, contamination or erosion susceptibility. Prior published works characterizing soils by using fractal dimension do not incorporate the practical character of the MC-D method, presented in this paper. The main purpose of the present paper is to characterize soils by using the fractal dimension through the practical MC-D method. Three types of soils were chosen, Alfisol, Oxisol and Inceptisol, and the results were, respectively: 2.720.02, 2.480.01 and 2.390.01. According to the literature, the values for fractal dimension can be associated to basic soil characteristics, making it possible a better understanding of the soil mechanical behaviour. One great advantage of this method is the fact, that the incorporation of the MC-D method into the fractal dimension analysis does not take much time and technicians, even in field conditions, could perform it.