LAUSR

Due to the opacity of natural soil, transparent soil has become an effective research tool to visualize soil internal movements and deformations. In this paper, the past research on transparent soil samples were summarized and reviewed. Due to the incompatibility with the latex membrane, the high viscosity and the high cost of the previously used pore fluids in the mixtures of transparent soil samples, more chemicals, and their mixtures have been tested in search of more suitable pore fluids to overcome the shortcomings above. Both granular particles of silica gel and fused quartz were tested for possible transparent clay and sand samples, respectively. Among the 19 chemicals/oils/water tested previously, 7 of them were selected with another 8 new oil and 30 new chemicals have been tested. There were 19 mixtures of fluids (15 oil-based and 4 water-based) studied for suitable pore fluids to the target refractive indices (TRIs) of the two granular particles to achieve the transparency of soil samples. Both interactions of the potential pore fluids with latex membrane and with granular particles were measured. Potassium thiocyanaten (KSCN) solution was identified as one of the new suitable water-based solutions with low viscosity and easy researching TRIs. Ethanol versus 3-Propanetriol (E +3-P) mixture, and Isopropanol versus 3-Propanetriol (I +3-P) mixture were identified as two new suitable oil-based solutions with minimum interaction with latex membranes.