ABSTRACT
In this paper a probabilistic porous model is used to simulate the retention curves for different soils. The model is built on the basis of porous networks and uses the same rules for the empting and filling of pores. However it shows important advantages over network models. For example, the computer code is fairly small and the equations are solved within seconds while network models usually require large computational codes that take several hours to run when large networks are analyzed. This model considers three different elements: the macropores, the sites and the bonds. It is able to simulate the retention curves of a material when its pore size distribution is known. It can also be used to interpret in a more realistic manner, the results of mercury intrusion porosimetry tests. In this paper the model is used to obtain the pore size distribution of different soils using the retention curve as data. The comparison between theoretical and experimental results shows that the model reproduces approximately the pore size distribution of the soil obtained from mercury intrusion porosimetry tests.
