On the accuracy of saturation estimation from electrical measurements of soils with high swelling clay content

Electrical conductivity models have been widely used to estimate water content and petrophysical properties of soils in hydrogeophysical studies. However, these models are typically only valid for soils with non‐expandable matrices because they were originally developed for clean sandstone reservoir rocks. Soils containing swelling clays are characterized by matrices that expand/contract upon gaining/losing water. In this laboratory study, we demonstrate that soil matrix changes affect saturation estimation using Archie's laws. A sample of a soil containing a swelling clay was fully saturated with a potassium chloride solution, then left to dry evaporatively at room temperature for 8 days. The complex resistivity of the soil, along with its weight and volume shrinkage, were measured daily during the drying period, and the surface conductivity was calculated based on previous empirical findings. Over the course of the study, the simultaneous evaporation yielded a 33% decrease in volume and caused a nonlinear reduction in saturation with decreasing water content. Accounting for surface conductivity and correcting for saturation using the calculated volume reduction resulted in a power‐law relationship with high R2 values between resistivity and saturation along with reasonable saturation exponents. On the contrary, neglecting either surface conductivity or shrinkage caused similar underestimations of saturation exponents. These results indicate that the application of Archie's second law to soils with swelling clays leads to erroneous predictions of resistivity if saturation values are not corrected for changes in the volume of the soil and surface conductivity is neglected.