Mechanical Testing in Unsaturated Soils

The state-of-the-art report presented herein is aimed at documenting, to the largest extent possible, some of the recent advances in laboratory testing of unsaturated soils for stress–strain–strength–stiffness characterization under suction-controlled isotropic, axisymmetric, and true triaxial stress states. The report is intended to be neither comprehensive nor fully inclusive, offering plenty of room for further discussion on recent refinements and techniques not yet reported in the literature. The main sections in this report are devoted to describing current methods and technologies using cylindrical triaxial systems, including advances in volume change measurements; resonant column/torsional shear systems; bender element-based systems; and suction-controlled testing under true triaxial stress states. Concluding remarks are included in the last section of the report.     

一维稳态入渗时非饱和土基质吸力分布

雨水的入渗和蒸发对土体的其质吸力分布有着重要的影响作用。利用水相连续性条件、广义Darcy定律及Gardner关于非饱和土导水系数和基质吸力的经验公式,建立并求解出非饱和土一维稳态渗流情况下基质吸力沿深度变化的关系表达式。根据所解得的解析解,详细分析了在单一土层情况下参数α、入渗强度q和qlks对基质吸力分布的影响。     

非饱和土的一种分类方法

根据理想模型中土颗粒和孔隙水之间的几何关系、热力学原理和土力学基本理论,研究了土的非饱和性在非饱和土中引起的力系。给出了张力吸力和吸力比的定义,并在考虑基质吸力作用面积的基础上定义了等效吸力的概念。按照孔隙水弯液面是否与土颗粒表面搭接,将非饱和土分为搭接非饱和土和不搭接非饱和土两类。进而根据搭接状态将搭接非饱和土细分为水封闭非饱和土和搭接双开敞非饱和土,根据孔隙气状态将不搭接非饱和土细分为不搭接双开敞非饱和土和气封闭非饱和土。在搭接非饱和土中,出现张力吸力并对土体的强度产生增强作用;在不搭接非饱和土中,表面张力只是沿着液面传播,不对土的强度产生效应。另外,张力吸力只对强度问题有贡献,它不是渗流问题的驱动力。     

非饱和土的剪切强度

首先回顾了非饱和土剪切强度的研究现状,接着在控制吸力非饱和土三轴剪切试验的基础上提出了非饱和土剪切强度的双曲模型,它可预测不同吸力对强度的贡献———τｓ ,预测结果令人满意,具有很好的实用性。     

A Modified Mohr-Coulomb Model to Simulate the Behavior of Pipelines in Unsaturated Soils

At the present time, it is very common in practice to utilize Mohr-Coulomb model to simulate the soil behaviour in the application of soil-pipeline interaction problems. However, the traditional Mohr-Coulomb model is unable to predict the realistic loading that can apply on buried pipes during large ground deformation. Especially, the linear elastic-perfectly plastic Mohr-Coulomb model is not capable of simulating the unsaturated soil loading which can result larger than anticipated loading due to suction induced additional normal force between the soil particles. A user defined unsaturated modified Mohr-Coulomb model is developed within a generalized effective stress framework considering suction hardening effects to capture the realistic loading induced by unsaturated soil medium. Firstly, the model has been developed considering microscopic and macroscopic suction hardening mechanisms, and was implemented into a commercial finite element program associated with user subroutine written in FORTAN. Then the model was validated through a series of unsaturated triaxial compression tests conducted on the basis of different sand types having various initial conditions. Finally, the model has been applied to simulate the behaviour of pipelines subjected to lateral soil loading in unsaturated soils. The results revealed that the modified Mohr-Coulomb model has reasonable predictions when compared to the load-displacement response of pipes obtained from two large scale testing programs. The developed model can be used to predict the increased strength and stiffness associated with soil suction that increases lateral loads on pipelines, and thus has widespread relevance for simulating the pipeline response in unsaturated soils under externally imposed ground movement.     

Free-Swell and Swelling Pressure of Unsaturated Compacted Clays; Experiments and Neural Networks Modeling

Expansive soils have received attentions of several investigators in the past half of century in the problematic soils context. Volume change behavior of unsaturated compacted soils in presence of water and change of degree of saturation was observed in two form of heave or collapse. Low water content and low density compacted soils in presence of enough surcharge pressure lose stability and collapse, because of their metastable and susceptible structure to change of degree of saturation. Free-swell and swelling pressure of five compacted clays, covering low to high plastic clays have been investigated in respect to compaction states and swelling pressure was compared with collapse pressure threshold. The results of experiments were utilized in two Artificial Neural Networks to predict free-swell percent and swelling pressure of a soil sample based on index properties and compaction state.     

Cyclic Swell–Shrink Behaviour of a Compacted Expansive Soil

Laboratory cyclic swell–shrink tests were carried out on compacted expansive soil specimens to study in detail the effect of changes in shrinkage pattern on the swell–shrink behaviour of compacted expansive soils. Compacted soil specimens were allowed to swell and either shrank fully or partially shrank to several predetermined heights in each cycle. The tests were carried out at a surcharge pressure of 50 kPa. The test results revealed that shrinkage of compacted saturated soil specimens to predetermined height in each shrinkage cycle provides similar conditions as that of the controlled suction tests with an increasing number of swell–shrink cycles. The water content of soil specimens and hence soil suction was found to remain nearly constant for each pattern of shrinkage. For soil specimens equilibrated to a given swell–shrink pattern, suction at the end of shrinkage cycles was changed from a higher suction to a lower suction, and also from a lower to a higher suction. The experimental results showed that there may be an immediate equilibrium state attained by the soil in terms of swell–shrink potential if suction at the shrinkage cycles was less than the past suction; otherwise, the equilibrium state was accompanied by fatigue of swelling. The volumetric deformation of the soil specimen subjected greater shrinkage was found to be much larger than the corresponding vertical deformation. The compressibility index of microstructure, κ_m, was determined for several shrinkage patterns. It is shown that κ_m is heavily influenced by suction at the end of shrinkage cycles.     

非饱和土壤水力参数预测的分形模型

综述了利用分形几何理论,可在土壤水力性质,包括土壤水分特征曲线及水力传导系数与土壤结构分维之间建立起一定的函数关系式.这些函数关系式大多与Campbell定律具有相同或相似的幂定律形式,一方面揭示了Campbell定律的物理实质,另一方面可用于土壤持水量及水力传导系数的预测.     

The combined effect of clay and moisture content on the behavior of remolded unsaturated soils

The behavior of unsaturated clayey soil is highly influenced by the coupled interaction between water and clay content. Various aspects of the behavior of artificial clay–sand mixtures with variable water content were experimentally studied. Laboratory tests were utilized for the determination of consistency limits, the stress–strain relationship, strength parameters, hydraulic conductivity, and volume change characteristics for various combinations of water and clay content in soil mixtures.

Results presented for various clay–sand mixtures include: new normalized consistency limits; the combined effect of clay content and water content on the stress–strain relationship and on the strength parameters (c and φ); and the effect of clay content on hydraulic conductivity and swelling potential. The cohesion of clayey sand is found to increase with increasing water content to a certain limit, above which it decreases. The angle of internal friction for clayey sand is found generally to decrease with increasing water content. The degree of saturation is found to be better than the water content in explaining the strength behavior. The hydraulic conductivity sharply decreases with increasing clay content up to 40% beyond which the reduction becomes less significant. Simple empirical equations are proposed for predicting the swelling potential of clayey soils as a function of either the clay content or plasticity index.     

非饱和土增湿变形的实用计算方法

非饱和土力学研究目前还未进入实用阶段,主要原因在于吸力量测困难。本文提出了用等效吸力代替真实吸力的试验方法。首先以常规静三轴试验得到的原状饱和土以及非饱和土的应力-应变曲线为基础,根据变形等效的原则确定与某一饱和度相当的围压即为等效吸力;然后建立饱和度与等效吸力之间的非线性关系,并验证了该数学公式的正确性;再根据试验结果分析含水量对非饱和土强度的影响,建立了非饱和土的实用抗剪强度公式;最后按照邓肯-张模型的参数整理方法得到了不同饱和度非饱和土的模型参数,探索这些参数随饱和度的变化规律,建立了引入饱和度的非饱和黄土实用非线性模型,并进行了降雨入渗情况下非饱和土增湿变形的计算。结果表明,饱和度最大值为95%,等效吸力最大值为160 kPa,最大水平位移与竖向位移分别为0.6 cm和20.0 cm,均出现在浸水位置。计算结果合理地反映了非饱和土变形的分布趋势,验证了方法的合理性。     

Laboratory Investigations on Extremely High Suction Measurements for Fine-grained Soils

A Dewpoint PotentiaMeter (WP4) was used to measure suction of two fine-grained soils: a locally available silty soil and commercially available white clay, rapidly. Using these results, efforts were made to check the suitability and efficiency of various fitting functions, for defining the soil–water characteristic curve, SWCC, for high suction ranges (0–80 MPa). In addition to this, a knowledge-based database SoilVision 3.34 was used to estimate the SWCC using Pedo-transfer functions, PTFs. The study brings out that the Fredlund et al. [1997, Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on Unsaturated Soil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, pp. 13–23] PTF yields the best estimate of SWCC for fine-grained soils. The influence of the soil type and dry unit weight, on suction and the SWCC fitting parameters, have also been studied.     

A Methodology for Simulating Radionuclide Diffusion in Unsaturated Soils

In this paper, a methodology that can be employed to simulate radionuclide migration through unsaturated soils, under laboratory conditions, has been developed and reported. This was achieved with the help of a specially designed half-cell setup to study diffusion characteristics of inactive forms of Cs⁺, Sr⁺² and Co⁺² in two different types of soils, corresponding to their different compaction states. It has been noted that the apparent diffusion coefficient strongly depends on the volumetric water content of the soil. However, increase of the apparent diffusion coefficient for higher volumetric water contents is found to be much less as compared to the lower volumetric water contents.     

Hydraulic conductivity of remolded fine-grained soils versus index properties

Hydraulic conductivity is a dominant parameter in the design of engineered waste disposal facilities such as landfill liners and covers, lagoon liners and slurry walls. It is of interest to a geotechnical or geo-environmental engineer to develop a predictive method of determining the hydraulic conductivity of fine-grained soils, in order to assess its suitability as a liner material. To predict the hydraulic conductivity of soils, researchers and geotechnical engineers have attempted to correlate it with index properties of the soils, such as the liquid limit, void ratio and specific surface. Based on the present study a predictive method has been developed in this paper to predict the hydraulic conductivity in terms of void ratio and shrinkage index (Liquid limit – shrinkage limit) for remoulded fine-grained soils. Though the initial conditions for the soil will affect the hydraulic conductivity behaviour to some extent, both the void ratio and soil characteristics are primary factors in affecting the hydraulic conductivity. Therefore for predictive purpose, the study of hydraulic conductivity behaviour of remoulded fine-grained soils as presented in this paper can be found to be useful for compacted soils also.     

Unsaturated hydraulic properties of cemented tailings backfill that contains sodium silicate

Recycling the mine waste (tailings) into cemented tailings backfill has economical and environmental advantages for the mining industry. One of the most recent types of cemented tailings backfill is gelfill (GF), a backfill that contains sodium silicate as chemical additive. GF is typically made of tailings, water, binder and chemical additives (sodium silicate gel). It is a promising mine tailings backfill technology. From a design point of view, the environmental performance or durability of GF structures is considered as a key factor. Due to the fact that GF structures are cementitious tailings, their durability and environmental performance depend on their ability to resist the flow of aggressive elements (water and oxygen). Thus, understanding the unsaturated hydraulic properties of GF is essential for a cost-effective, environmentally friendly and durable design of GF structures. However, there is a lack of information with regards to unsaturated hydraulic properties of GF, the factors that affect them and their evolution with time. Hence, the unsaturated hydraulic properties (water retention curve (WRC) or water characteristic curve, air entry value (AEV), residual water content, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity) of GF are investigated in this paper. GF samples of various compositions and cured in room temperature for different times (3, 7, 28, and 90 days) are considered. Saturated hydraulic conductivity and microstructural tests have been conducted; WRCs are measured by using a WP4-T dewpoint potentiameter and the saline solution method. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is predicted using the van Genuchten (1980) equation. The water retention curve (WRC) is determined as the relationship between volumetric water content and suction for each GF mix and curing time. The van Genuchten (1980) equation is used to simulate the WRC to best-fit the experimental data. AEV and residual water content are also computed for each mix and curing time. Furthermore, functions are developed to predict the evolution of AEVs, residual water content and fitting parameters of the van Genuchten model with degree of hydration. Important outcomes have been achieved with regards to unsaturated hydraulic properties. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of GF was calculated to decrease when the suction, binder content, and degree of hydration increase. The effects of binder content and degree of hydration are more obvious at low suction ranges. The obtained results would contribute to a better design and assessment of the durability and environmental performance of GF structures.     

Unsaturated resilient behavior of a natural compacted sand

Granular materials are generally used in unbound layers of road pavement structures. The mechanical behavior of these materials is widely studied with repeated load triaxial tests (RLTT) in which the elastic response is defined as the resilient behavior. Usually observed under total stress conditions, the effect of pore pressure changes during loading are not usually included in design. Further, the unbound layers frequently exist under partially saturated conditions. The influence of the unsaturated state, i.e., the suction, on the mechanical behavior, of unbound granular materials for roads has not been sufficiently studied and is generally not taken into account in models used for these materials.     

Experimental Set-up for Determining Soil Water Retention Curves for Granular Soils During Drying

Abstract: Soil water retention curves (SWRCs) provide an important means of describing the response of unsaturated soils during drying / wetting processes in terms of variations of degree of saturation, water content or void ratio with suction. A key consideration in generating these curves is how to measure the suction. Frequently the filter paper technique is adopted, especially when high suctions are developed, e.g. with plastic clays. As each measurement takes at least a week with this technique, it can take months or years to generate a full SWRC in drying and wetting. Developments in laboratory tensiometers now allow matrix suctions up to about 1.5 MPa to be measured. With such a device it is possible to develop SWRCs for granular soils such as silts and clays in hours or days by continuous measurement. This paper describes an experimental set-up that was developed to measure changes in volume, water content and matrix suction during drying of three granular soils. Limitations of the apparatus and usefulness of the curves are discussed.     

Statistical Distributions of Hydraulic Conductivity from Reliability Analysis Data

This paper describes a first-order reliability-based analysis to identify the best-fit probability distributions for hydraulic conductivity. The analysis involved the use of existing hydraulic conductivity model developed from laboratory data and applied to lateritic soils, considering variations in soil parameters. Plots of reliability indices versus coefficients of variation were first made for hydraulic conductivity as well as for initial degree of saturation, plasticity index and clay content, considering three compactive efforts and log-normally distributed hydraulic conductivity. The traditional two-parameter log-normal distribution was compared to four alternative distributions: normal, gamma, Gumbel (extreme value type I-EVT-I) and Weibull (extreme value type III-EVT-III). The analysis showed that the Weibull and normal are the best-fit probability distributions for the hydraulic conductivity based reliability data. Hydraulic conductivities predicted from reliability analysis were used to demonstrate the possibility of applying the results obtained in this research by practising engineers. Experimentally-determined hydraulic conductivities were shown to be in good agreement with predicted values.     

Influence of rainfall-induced wetting on the stability of slopes in weathered soils

Shallow failures of slopes in weathered soil are caused by infiltration due to prolonged rainfall. These failures are mainly triggered by the deepening of the wetting band accompanied by a decrease in matric suction induced by the water infiltration. This paper reports trends of rainfall-induced wetting band depth in two types of weathered soils that are commonly found in Korea. Both theoretical and numerical analyses for wetting band depth are presented based on the soil–water characteristic curve obtained using filter paper as well as tensiometer tests. It is found that the magnitude of wetting front suction plays a key role in the stability of slopes in weathered soils. Theoretical analysis based on modified Green and Ampt model tends to underestimate the wetting band depth for typical Korean weathered soils. It was also deduced that for Korean weathered soils, the factor of safety drops rapidly once the wetting band depth of 1.2 m reached.