E3S Web of Conferences 382, 10002 (2023) https://doi.org/10.

1051/e3sconf/202338210002
UNSAT 2023

Gaining insight into the effective stress parameter using

pore-scale numerical modelling with the multiphase lattice
Boltzmann method
Reihaneh Hosseini1*, and Krishna Kumar2
1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
2Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA

Abstract. We investigate the factors influencing the effective stress parameter, 𝜒, in unsaturated granular
soils using pore-scale numerical modelling. The Shan-Chen multiphase lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is
used for this purpose. A procedure is outlined for measuring 𝜒 using LBM data. A full hydraulic cycle is
simulated for a granular soil column and individual contributions of suction and surface tension forces to 𝜒
are measured as a function of the degree of saturation, Sr. It is observed that while 𝜒 = 0 at Sr = 0 and 𝜒 =
1 at Sr = 1, 𝜒 > Sr for 0 < Sr < 1. The trend of the 𝜒-Sr curve is explained based on the trend in the
individual components. Schematic plots are utilized to facilitate the understanding of the trends in the data.
It is also observed that the 𝜒-Sr relationship is hysteretic; particularly, 𝜒 is larger during imbibition compared
to drainage, for a wide range of Sr, due to the more pronounced contribution of surface tension forces.

1 Introduction into the factors influencing 𝜒 and the extent of their

Effective stress in unsaturated soils was first introduced
by Bishop [1] as 𝜎′ = 𝜎 − 𝑢𝑎 + 𝜒(𝑢𝑎 − 𝑢𝑤 ), where 𝜎
is the total stress, 𝑢𝑎 and 𝑢𝑤 are pore air and pore water
pressures respectively and 𝜒 is the effective stress
parameter, controlling the contribution of suction, 𝑢𝑎 −
𝑢𝑤 , to the effective stress, 𝜎′. For many years, it was
debated whether effective stress can be used as a single
stress variable for characterizing unsaturated soils
similar to saturated soil [2–4]. Eventually it was
concluded that while unsaturated soils require two
independent stress state variables for a full description
of their mechanical and hydraulic behaviour [5], many
problems can be solved using only the effective stress
[6]. As a result, in recent years, attention has been given
back to effective stress for unsaturated soils. The
particular difficulty with using effective stress in
unsaturated soils is determining the effective stress
parameter. Experimental investigations have shown
many different variations of 𝜒 with the degree of
saturation, Sr, and have provided empirical relationships
[7], while theoretical solutions have suggested 𝜒 = Sr, if
the interfacial effects are ignored [8], and χ as a function
of Sr and air-water interfacial area, if the interfacial
effects are accounted for [9]. Simply using 𝜒 = Sr is
convenient but it does not properly align with the
experimental data, while using the more complete
formulation requires knowing the interfacial area which
is not easy to measure.
In this study, we take a closer look at the effective
stress parameter using pore-scale numerical modelling.
Using numerical modelling, we are able to gain insight
influence. We are also able to monitor the change of 𝜒
during drainage and imbibition (i.e. drying and wetting)
to investigate the effect of hydraulic history.
2 Measuring χ using multiphase LBM
We use the multiphase lattice Boltzmann method
(LBM) as the pore-scale numerical modelling technique
[10]. Particularly, we use the Shan-Chen method [11,
12] for single-component multiphase flow, meaning that
two phases, i.e., gas and liquid, of the same component
are modelled, e.g., water and water vapor. Only the fluid
domain is simulated in this study and the soil grains are
kept immobile, implying the assumption that the
capillary forces are not large enough to cause grain
movements.
In an LBM simulation, the domain is discretized
with a grid called the lattice, consisting of lattice nodes;
see for instance the simulation of a liquid bridge
between two solid grains in Figure 1. At every timestep,
fluid properties, including density, velocity and
pressure, are updated for each lattice node in the fluid
region, based on the imposed conditions. Using the
nodal fluid densities, each fluid node is categorized as
either liquid (high density) or the gas (low density).
Refer to [13] for a detailed description of the numerical
method. The goal is to use this information to find the
effective stress parameter.
The first step is to find the force applied by the fluid
to each grain. The total fluid force applied to a grain
consists of two components, force due to suction, ∆𝑃,

* Corresponding author: reihos@vt.edu

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
E3S Web of Conferences 382, 10002 (2023)
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and force due to surface tension, 𝛾𝑙𝑔 . These forces are
shown schematically in Figure 2. The suction is applied
over the surface of the grain, while surface tension is
applied at the contact line between the three phases, i.e.,
solid, liquid and gas. We implement the following
strategy to find these forces using the lattice data.
Fig. 1. Example of a multiphase LBM simulation. The grid
points are called lattice nodes. The densities of the lattice
nodes in the fluid (non-solid) region are used to determine the
phase of these nodes as liquid or gas.
Fig. 2. Schematic of fluid forces applied to a solid grain. 𝒇 is
the total fluid force, 𝒇∆𝑷 is the force due to suction and 𝒇𝜸𝐥𝐠 is
the force due to surface tension.
For calculating the suction force, the nodes that are
on the surface of the grain are identified; see purple
nodes in Figure 3a (note that only half of the spherical
grain is shown for visualization purposes). Using these
nodes, a Voronoi tessellation is performed on the
surface of the grain to find the associated increment of
area for each node, Figure 3b. The pressure at each node
is then multiplied by the associated area to find the
magnitude of the increment of force at that node. The
direction of each force increment is found as the
direction normal to the surface. The force increments are
then integrated, while accounting for their directions,
over the entire surface of the grain, to find the total force
applied to the grain due to suction.
For calculating the surface tension force, the nodes
that are on the contact line between the three phases are
identified; see green nodes in Figure 4. For each contact
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line node, half the distance between its two contact line
neighbours is taken as its associated length. The
associated length is multiplied by the surface tension
(force per unit length), which is known based on the
parameters used in the numerical simulation, to find the
magnitude of the increment of surface tension force at
that node. The direction of the force is found by taking
the cross product of the vector tangent to the contact
line, 𝑽𝒄 , and the vector normal to the surface of the
grain, 𝑽𝒏 , to get the vector perpendicular to both, 𝑽𝒕 , and
then rotating 𝑽𝒕 by the known contact angle, θ, in a plane
perpendicular to the contact line, to get the final
direction, 𝑽𝑺 . The force increments are then integrated
over the entire contact line, considering their directions,
to get the total surface tension force applied to the grain.
Fig. 3. Finding the suction force for each grain using lattice
data.
Fig. 4. Finding the surface tension force for each grain using
lattice data.
The next step is to use the fluid forces applied to each
grain to find the change of stress in the soil skeleton.
Consider the unsaturated granular soil column in Figure
5, where the fluid force applied to each grain is known.
For the case where there is no change in overburden
pressure on the soil, the change of effective stress on
plane XX′ will be only due to change of fluid forces with
saturation. Therefore, we can write
Δσ′𝑣 =
Δ(Σ𝑁 )
𝑖
=
Δ[Σ𝑓𝑗 𝑐𝑜𝑠(α𝑗 )]
. (1)
𝐴 𝐴
On the other hand, based on the original effective stress
formulation we have
Δ𝜎′𝑣 = Δ(𝜎𝑣 − 𝑢𝑎 ) + Δ[𝜒(𝑢𝑎 − 𝑢𝑤 )]. (2)
Since 𝜎𝑣 is the total stress which already includes the air
pressure from the top, 𝜎𝑣 − 𝑢𝑎 is basically the stress due
E3S Web of Conferences 382, 10002 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202338210002
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to the weight of the soil, which for this case will be Σ𝑓𝛾 ,𝑧
lg
𝜒𝛾lg = (8)
constant. Therefore, 𝐴Δ𝑃
Δ𝜎′𝑣 = Δ[𝜒(𝑢𝑎 − 𝑢𝑤 )]. (3) 𝜒 = 𝜒𝛥𝑃 + 𝜒𝛾lg (9)
Comparing equations (1) and (3) we get where the subscript z refers to the vertical
Δ[𝜒(𝑢𝑎 − 𝑢𝑤 )] =
∆[Σ𝑓𝑗 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝛼𝑗)]
. (4) component of the force.
𝐴
If we take Sr = 1, at which there is no suction, as the
baseline case and ignore buoyant forces to only focus on
capillary forces, we can write
𝑗 Σ𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝛼 )
𝑗
𝜒(𝑢𝑎 − 𝑢𝑤 ) = (5)
𝐴
at any other Sr and find 𝜒 and each step of the simulation
using
Σ𝑓𝑗 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝛼𝑗 ) Σ𝑓𝑗 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝛼𝑗)
𝜒= = . (6)
𝐴(𝑢𝑎 −𝑢𝑤 ) 𝐴Δ𝑃

Fig. 5. Schematic soil column. 𝒇𝒋 is the force applied by the

fluid to grain j due to suction and surface tension. 𝑵𝒊 is the
contact force applied to grain i at the base.

3 Simulation Setup
We use the granular soil column shown in Figure 6a,
consisting of 1155 spherical grains with a grain size
distribution shown in Figure 6b and a porosity of 0.35.
The boundary conditions are closed at the bottom, open
to air at the top, and periodic horizontally. A full
hydraulic cycle is simulated for this soil column; starting
from full saturation the liquid is drained from the bottom
until an almost dry state and subsequently the liquid is
injected back until full saturation. The simulation is
performed as a volume-controlled test, where the
saturation is changed by a certain increment and the
resultant suction is measured after equilibrium is
reached. The resulting soil-water characteristic curve
(SWCC) for this specimen is presented in Figure 7. At
each step of the drainage/imbibition process, 𝜒 is
calculated using equation (6). In addition, individual
components of 𝜒 due to suction, 𝜒𝛥𝑃 , and surface
tension, 𝜒𝛾lg , are calculated by separately summing the
suction and surface tension forces as follows:
Σ𝑓
𝜒𝛥𝑃 = Δ𝑃,𝑧 (7)
𝐴Δ𝑃
Fig. 6. Granular soil column model. a) Visualization of the
granular packing; lu stand for lattice units, which corresponds
to the number of grid spacings b) Grain size distribution
curve.
4 X as a function of degree of saturation
The results of measured 𝜒, 𝜒𝛥𝑃 , and 𝜒𝛾lg as a function
of degree of saturation for both drainage and imbibition
are shown in Figure 8. Note that the degree of saturation
used is the saturation of the plane at the base of the
column rather than the saturation of the entire soil
column. The reason is that the method used in this study
for measuring 𝜒 only applies to the effective stress at the
base of the soil column not the average effective stress
throughout the specimen, therefore, it correlates with the
saturation at the base not the overall saturation. The
results indicate that 𝜒 = 0 at Sr = 0 and 𝜒 = 1 at Sr = 1,
as expected theoretically, while 𝜒 > Sr for
0 < Sr < 1 during both drainage and imbibition. The

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results also suggest that the 𝜒-Sr relationship has
hysteresis, independent of the suction hysteresis shown
in Figure 7. Particularly, 𝜒 during imbibition is higher
than drainage, for a wide range of Sr. To understand the
trend of the 𝜒-Sr curve and find the reason for its
hysteresis, individual components that constitute 𝜒 are
investigated.
Fig. 7. Simulated soil-water characteristics curve (SWCC)
for the soil column model.
Fig. 8. Measured 𝝌 −Sr curves for the soil column model.
Looking back at the schematic in Figure 2, we see
that the suction force on each grain is proportional to the
projected area on which the suction acts (𝜋𝑟 2 ). Using
this knowledge, we can deduce that for an assembly of
grains, the contribution of suction forces to 𝜒, 𝜒𝛥𝑃 ,
represents the ratio of the projected area to the total
cross-sectional area; see derivation in Figure 9. 𝜒𝛥𝑃 for
both drainage and imbibition starts at a high value at
Sr = 1 and decreases as Sr decreases due to the projected
areas decreasing, as shown schematically in Figures 9
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and 10. However, 𝜒𝛥𝑃 during imbibition is lower
compared to drainage due to the differences in fluid
phase distributions. During imbibition, the gas phase is
separated into multiple individual gas zones (clusters),
while during drainage there is only one continuous gas
phase from the top to the bottom. The gas clusters at the
bottom of the specimen during imbibition exert an
upward suction force to the grains, corresponding to the
projected areas taking a negative sign in the summation
and, therefore, the 𝜒𝛥𝑃 being smaller compared to
drainage.
Fig. 9. Schematic diagram showing the change of projected
areas during drainage.
Now if we focus on the surface tension force in
Figure 2, we see that it is affected by the length of the
contact line (2𝜋𝑟) as well as the orientation of the
interfacial surface (𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛽). The contribution of surface
tension forces to 𝜒, 𝜒𝛾lg , is similarly affected by the total
length of the contact line and orientation of the
interfacial surface, as well as the magnitude of suction
itself which appears in the denominator of equation (8).
Referring back to Figure 8, 𝜒𝛾lg for both drainage and
imbibition starts at a high value at Sr = 1 and decreases
as Sr decreases, mainly due to the length of contact line
decreasing. There is also a clear change of slope
happening at Sr of about 0.1 during drainage and Sr of
about 0.2 during imbibition. This is due to the additional
contribution of the orientation of the forces. Consider
the grain in Figure 11 to be a grain at the bottom of the
soil column. At high Sr, the phase distribution will be
similar to Figure 11a. As Sr decreases, the liquid level
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drops and a liquid bridge is formed underneath the grain,
Figure 11b. In this transition, the length of the contact
line decreases while 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛽 increases, and the
counteracting effects of the two results in the variation
of 𝜒𝛾lg happening at a low rate. Eventually, the liquid
level drops enough for all the grains at the bottom to
have a bridge underneath, which is referred to as the
pendular regime. At this point, further reduction of Sr
would require the bridges to shrink, Figure 11c. In this
transition both the contact line length and 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛽
decrease, therefore, the decrease of 𝜒𝛾lg happens at a
higher rate. This change of slope occurs at a higher Sr
during imbibition compared to drainage (0.2 versus 0.1)
due to the particular phase distribution during
imbibition, characterized by a multitude of gas clusters
and liquid bridges [13].
Fig. 10. Schematic diagram showing the change of projected
areas during imbibition.
Another important observation from Figure 8 is that
𝜒𝛾lg is much higher during imbibition compared to
drainage. This is partly due to surface tension forces
being larger during imbibition and the other part due to
suction being smaller. The lower suction during
imbibition is due to the well-known hysteresis of the
SWCC, the source of which is discussed in [13]. The
reason for the larger surface tension forces can be
explained again using the phase distributions. Referring
back to Figure 9b and 10b, we see that during drainage,
the surface tension forces, shown in green arrows,
mainly push outwards from the gas finger that is
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connecting the top to the bottom, whereas during
imbibition, the gas clusters at the bottom pull the grains
down and therefore, result in a larger downward total
surface tension force.
As a result of summation of 𝜒𝛥𝑃 and 𝜒𝛾lg , 𝜒 deviates
from 𝜒 = Sr as Sr decreases, reaches the maximum
deviation when the number of liquid bridges at the
bottom are maximized, and converges back to 𝜒 = Sr as
Sr approaches zero. This general trend is similar for both
drainage and imbibition, however the 𝜒 magnitudes
differ. While imbibition 𝜒𝛥𝑃 is slightly smaller
compared to the drainage 𝜒𝛥𝑃 , imbibition 𝜒𝛾lg is much
larger compared to drainage 𝜒𝛾lg for Sr > 0.1, resulting
in the overall 𝜒 to take a larger value during imbibition
in this Sr range. At Sr < 0.1 there is no hysteresis in 𝜒-
Sr because the base plane is in a similar pendular regime
during both drainage and imbibition.
To ensure that our results are consistent with what is
expected theoretically, compare the measured 𝜒 with the
theoretical solution by Nikooee et al [9],
𝑘 𝑎
𝜒 = 𝑆𝑟 + 𝑤𝑛 𝑤𝑛 (10)
Δ𝑃
where 𝑘𝑤𝑛 is a material coefficient and 𝑎𝑤𝑛 is the
wetting-nonwetting (liquid-gas) interfacial area per
volume. We use 𝑘𝑤𝑛 = 𝛾lg , per the suggestion of Likos
[14] and measure 𝑎𝑤𝑛 based on the simulation results of
the phase distributions. The comparison is shown in
Figure 12. We have used both 𝑎𝑤𝑛 for the entire soil
column and 𝑎𝑤𝑛 for the plane at the base of the column
(which corresponds to an interfacial length rather than
area). We see a great match between the measured and
calculated results for the latter case.
Fig. 11. Schematic diagram for understanding the change of
slope in the 𝜒𝛾lg -Sr curve.
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the interparticle forces to be able to simulate fine-
grained soils.
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2.
3.
4.
5.
Fig. 12. Comparison of numerically measured and
theoretically calculated 𝝌 for the soil column model. 6.
5 Conclusion 7.
We measure the effective stress parameter, 𝜒, as a
function of degree of saturation, Sr, at the base of a
granular soil column during a full hydraulic cycle, using 8.
numerical simulations with the multiphase lattice
Boltzmann method (LBM). We find that 𝜒 is equal to
one at Sr of one, gradually deviates from 𝜒 = Sr as Sr 9.
decreases, with the maximum deviation happening
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during imbibition compared to drainage for Sr > 0.1.
We find the reason for this hysteresis in the individual
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11.
While the contribution of suction forces to 𝜒 is smaller
during imbibition compared to drainage, the
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base plane is in a similar pendular regime.
This study shows the potential of using pore-scale
numerical modelling for finding a better understating of
the effective stress in unsaturated soils. Future work will
focus on improving the simulation capabilities to
overcome the current limitations. Particularly, in this
study, the grains are immobile, measurements are made
only at the base of the soil column, and the soil is
granular. Coupling the current LBM code with a discrete
element method (DEM) code will allow grain
movements to be modelled as well as measurements of
effective stress to be made at any location and any
direction in the specimen. It will also allow
improvements to be made to the shape of the grains and
https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202338210002
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