Time saving fluid dynamic predictions in a wetting-drying process: A hypothesis for vertisols

This paper is aimed at investigating the effect of the initial water content in a vertisol sample on the whole wetting-drying process leading the system to a change in volume. In order to do this, an experimental setup was realized and employed with very thin soil layers wetted from below (“per ascensum”). The results show that the effect of the initial water content on the swelling-shrinkage process is to shift the corresponding curve e-ϑ towards bigger-smaller values of the humidity but does not seem to affect the dynamics of the process. The text was submitted by the authors in English.