ON PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION AND EFFECTIVE STRESS IN UNSATURATED SOILS

1981 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. H. GROENEVELT ◽  
B. D. KAY
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Distribution ◽  
Effective Stress ◽  
Unsaturated Soil ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Clay Soil ◽  
Thermodynamic Models ◽  
Liquid Pressure ◽  
Load Pressure ◽  
Integral Relations

A theory is presented for the distribution of load pressures over the different phases in an unsaturated soil. It provides differential and integral relations between the equilibrium liquid pressure, the equilibrium solid pressure and the load pressure. Mechanical and thermodynamic models are presented by which the effective stress in unsaturated soils is defined. The value of the effective stress is then calculated for a certain state of a clay soil.

scholarly journals Prediction of unsaturated shear strength from microstructurally based effective stress

2019 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 07005
Author(s):  
Régis Mpawenayo ◽  
Pierre Gerard
Keyword(s):  
Shear Strength ◽  
Effective Stress ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry ◽  
Clay Soil ◽  
Large Range ◽  
Triaxial Tests ◽  
Silty Clay ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Silty Clay Soil

This work aims at investigating the adequacy of microstructurally based effective stress to predict the shear strength of unsaturated soils over a wide range of suction. For that purpose, shear strength data are acquired on a silty clay soil through two types of unsaturated triaxial tests: suction controlled triaxial tests and unconsolidated triaxial tests at constant water content. The microstructure of the soil is determined with Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry and is directly used in different expressions of microstructurally based effective stresses available in the literature. The large range of suction tested allows to determine the most consistent expression of the effective stress to reproduce the experimental observations.

An equation of state for unsaturated soils

2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward J Murray
Keyword(s):  
Equation Of State ◽  
Effective Stress ◽  
Unsaturated Soil ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Deformation Behaviour ◽  
Water Volume ◽  
State Variables ◽  
Stress Equation ◽  
Stress Regime ◽  
Soil System

The enthalpy within a soil system under equilibrium conditions is investigated theoretically. Terzaghi's effective stress equation for a saturated soil is first examined and the approach extended to determine the enthalpy associated with the air, water, and solid phases, and the interactions between the phases, in an unsaturated soil. An equation of state is developed which links the stress state variables (p – ua) and (ua – uw) to the specific volume (v) and specific water volume (vw) and thus to the volumes of the phases. The equation is shown to provide a logical interpretation of the average volumetric "coupling" stress p'c within unsaturated soils which highlights the significance of the dual stress regime and bimodal structure. The new equation is compared with previously reported experimental data on kaolin and a lateritic gravel. The agreement is good and it provides insight into unsaturated soil strength and deformation behaviour and clarifies various previously identified anomalies.Key words: partial saturation, unsaturated soils, thermodynamics, effective stress, equation of state, critical state.

Soil Strength Reduction Method Induced by Variation of Water Content

2012 ◽  
Vol 170-173 ◽  
pp. 847-852
Author(s):  
Peng Ming Jiang ◽  
Zhong Lei Yan ◽  
Peng Li
Keyword(s):  
Slope Stability ◽  
Unsaturated Soil ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
Strength Reduction ◽  
Actual State ◽  
Soil Slope ◽  
Simple Method ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Stability

As the complexity of unsaturated soil theory, and it must have a long test period when we study the unsaturated soils, so the conventional design analysis software does not provide such analysis, so we can imagine that such a slope stability analysis does not accurately reflect the actual state of the slope. Based on the known soil moisture content，this paper use the soil water characteristic curve and strength theory of unsaturated soil to calculate the strength reduction parameters of soil which can calculate the stability of the soil slope when using the common calculation method. It is noticeable that this method can be extended and applied if we establish regional databases for this simple method, and these databases can improve the accuracy of the calculation of slope stability.

Capillary-based effective stress formulation for predicting shear strength of unsaturated soils

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (12) ◽  
pp. 2067-2076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marie Konrad ◽  
Marc Lebeau
Keyword(s):  
Shear Strength ◽  
Effective Stress ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Adsorbed Water ◽  
Soil Strength ◽  
Liquid Films ◽  
Degree Of Saturation ◽  
Stress Parameter ◽  
Effective Stress Parameter

A number of investigations have shown that the shear strength of unsaturated soils can be defined in terms of effective stress. The difficulty in this approach lies in quantifying the effective stress parameter, or Bishop’s parameter. Although often set equal to the degree of saturation, it has recently been suggested that the effective stress parameter should be related to an effective degree of saturation, which defines the fraction of water that contributes to soil strength. A problematic element in this approach resides in differentiating the water that contributes to soil strength from that which does not contribute to soil strength. To address this difficulty, the paper uses theoretical considerations and experimental observations to partition the water retention function into capillary and adsorptive components. Given that the thin liquid films of adsorbed water should not contribute to effective stress, the effective stress parameter is solely related to the capillary component of water retention. In sample calculations, this alternative effective stress parameter provided very good agreement with experimental data of shear strength for a variety of soil types.

Method for Quick Prediction of Hydraulic Conductivity and Soil-Water Retention of Unsaturated Soils

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (52) ◽  
pp. 108-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaoyang Dong ◽  
Yuan Guo ◽  
Xiong (Bill) Yu
Keyword(s):  
Finite Element ◽  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Unsaturated Soil ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Hydraulic Properties ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
Soil Water Retention

Hydraulic conductivity and soil-water retention are two critical soil properties describing the fluid flow in unsaturated soils. Existing experimental procedures tend to be time consuming and labor intensive. This paper describes a heuristic approach that combines a limited number of experimental measurements with a computational model with random finite element to significantly accelerate the process. A microstructure-based model is established to describe unsaturated soils with distribution of phases based on their respective volumetric contents. The model is converted into a finite element model, in which the intrinsic hydraulic properties of each phase (soil particle, water, and air) are applied based on the microscopic structures. The bulk hydraulic properties are then determined based on discharge rate using Darcy’s law. The intrinsic permeability of each phase of soil is first calibrated from soil measured under dry and saturated conditions, which is then used to predict the hydraulic conductivities at different extents of saturation. The results match the experimental data closely. Mualem’s equation is applied to fit the pore size parameter based on the hydraulic conductivity. From these, the soil-water characteristic curve is predicted from van Genuchten’s equation. The simulation results are compared with the experimental results from documented studies, and excellent agreements were observed. Overall, this study provides a new modeling-based approach to predict the hydraulic conductivity function and soil-water characteristic curve of unsaturated soils based on measurement at complete dry or completely saturated conditions. An efficient way to measure these critical unsaturated soil properties will be of benefit in introducing unsaturated soil mechanics into engineering practice.

Modified state-surface approach to the study of unsaturated soil behavior. Part I: Basic concept

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 536-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiong Zhang ◽  
Robert L. Lytton
Keyword(s):  
Unsaturated Soil ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Stress Path ◽  
Complex Stress ◽  
Soil Behavior ◽  
Elastic Surface ◽  
Surface Approach ◽  
Basic Model ◽  
Plastic Hardening ◽  
Complex Stress Path

The traditional state-surface approach to the study of unsaturated soil behavior is becoming much less popular these days, as it uses unique constitutive surfaces to represent unsaturated soil behavior. This approach is essentially a nonlinear elastic formation and cannot be used to explain complex stress-path dependency for unsaturated soils. In this paper, a modified state-surface approach (MSSA) is proposed to represent unsaturated soil behavior under isotropic stress conditions in which a conventional void-ratio state surface is considered to be made up of an elastic surface and a plastic hardening surface. The plastic hardening surface remains stationary at all times, whereas the elastic surface remains unchanged when the soil experiences elastic deformation and moves downward when there is plastic hardening occurrence. Using the MSSA, the loading–collapse (LC) and the suction increase (SI) yield curves in the Barcelona basic model (BBM) are derived. The prediction of three typical cases of soils under isotropic conditions and experimental results using the proposed approach confirmed its feasibility, simplicity, and potential for the study of unsaturated soil behavior.

A UNIFIED FRACTAL MODEL FOR PERMEABILITY COEFFICIENT OF UNSATURATED SOIL

Fractals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (01) ◽  
pp. 1940012 ◽  
Author(s):  
GAOLIANG TAO ◽  
XIAOKANG WU ◽  
HENGLIN XIAO ◽  
QINGSHENG CHEN ◽  
JIANCHAO CAI
Keyword(s):  
Relative Permeability ◽  
Unsaturated Soil ◽  
Permeability Coefficient ◽  
Unsaturated Soils ◽  
Fractal Theory ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
Fractal Model ◽  
Computational Effort ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Mechanical Coupling

Due to the significant challenges in the measurements, evaluation of permeability coefficient for unsaturated soil is of immense importance for investigating the seepage and hydro-mechanical coupling problems of unsaturated soil. However, the predictions of existing typical models reveal significance divergence for permeability coefficient of unsaturated soils even under identical conditions. In particular, the existing models are greatly restricted in their practical application due to their complexity in the form of integral expressions that require significant computational effort. Here, a simplified unified model is presented to estimate the relative permeability coefficient. First, a fractal-form of soil–water characteristic curve (SWCC) is derived from fractal theory. Then, on the basis of the proposed SWCC models, the classical models (i.e. Childs and Collis-George (CCG) model, Burdine model, Mualem model and Tao and Kong model, respectively) for evaluating the permeability coefficient of unsaturated soil are converted to be presented in fractal forms. It is interestingly found that the fractal forms of these models are enormously similar. Based on these observations, a simplified unified fractal model for the relative permeability coefficient of unsaturated soil is proposed, where only two parameters (i.e. fractal dimension and air-entry value) are included, thereby significantly reducing the computational efforts. The detailed procedure for determining model parameters is elaborated. The accuracy of this model is verified by comparing its predictions with the experimental data for over 12 types of unsaturated soils. The results highlight that, compared with existing models, the proposed model would be much more efficiently used for estimating the relative permeability coefficient of unsaturated soils, thereby facilitating its application for investigating the associated seepage and hydro-mechanical coupling problems in practice.

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