scholarly journals Effect of coarse content on shear behavior of unsaturated coarse granular soils

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (12) ◽  
pp. 1371-1383 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.F. Zhao ◽  
L.M. Zhang

The effects of coarse content on the microstructure, soil-water characteristics, shearing behavior, and critical state characteristics of three types of unsaturated coarse granular soil with different coarse contents are investigated in an integrated manner through an extensive laboratory test program. The tests were performed on samples with the same void ratio of 0.62. As the coarse content increases, the pore-size distribution of the soil changes from unimodal to bimodal. Accordingly, the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) changes from unimodal to bimodal. The whole drainage process of the bimodal SWCC is divided into four stages based on the role of the pore water. The contribution of suction to the peak state parameters and critical state parameters, except for the intercept of the critical state line in the stress plane (μ(s)) of a bimodal soil, reaches its maximum in the first drainage region. The pore water in the two pore series of a bimodal soil contributes to the shear strength differently during the desaturation process. Hence, the variations of the maximum dilatancy and the shear strength parameters with degree of saturation are highly nonlinear and μ(s) shows bimodal features. The contributions of suction to the shear strength parameters decrease with increasing coarse content.

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (9) ◽  
pp. 1331-1344 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.M. Yan ◽  
Guanghui Zhang

Experiments were undertaken to study the soil-water characteristics of compacted sandy soil (SS) and cemented soil (CS) in field and laboratory conditions. The influence of vegetation and material density on the development of negative pore-water pressure (PWP) and degree of saturation (Sr) in the studied materials was investigated. The field planting experiments demonstrated a promising survival rate of Schefflera heptaphylla in both types of material, while the (SS) promoted better growth of the seedlings than the cemented one. In the field study, PWP and Sr of the compacted SS responded noticeably and promptly to natural drying–wetting cycles. However, the responses in the CS were relatively mild. When subjected to the same drying–wetting cycles, PWP responded more slowly and to a smaller magnitude compared with that of the uncemented counterpart. In addition, Sr changed little in CS. An increase in the density of the SS promoted rapid development of negative PWP, while an opposite trend was observed for CS. Attempts have been made to explain the observations from the perspectives of material permeability and change in water content during a drying period in both soil types. Furthermore, in SS, the development of PWP (with a measurement limit of −90 kPa) was minimally affected by the presence of vegetation, while vegetation noticeably helped the development of negative PWP in CS. Bounds of the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCCs) of the studied materials were presented based on estimates from the drying and wetting scanning curves derived from the field monitoring. A corresponding laboratory study was carried out in an environmental chamber with controllable temperature and humidity. Monitoring results from the laboratory agreed qualitatively with those obtained from the field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 05005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Brakorenko ◽  
Anna Leonova ◽  
Aleksey Nikitenkov

We investigate in this article the impact of soil water saturation on the slope stability, using a site in Tomsk city as a case study. The dependency of the shear strength parameters of soil on the degree of soil water saturation has been demonstrated. The paper also provides equations for the calculation of slope stability coefficient under different values of soil water saturation.


1979 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Widger ◽  
D. G. Fredlund

A common occurrence in cuts or fills of swelling soils is their reduction in strength with time. At the time of compaction, the clay generally has a high matrix suction. Correspondingly, it has a high strength and will stand at relatively steep side slopes. With time, the soil generally tends towards saturation and the matrix suction reduces towards zero. There is a reduction in total strength and if the gravitational forces are too large, the slope fails.During the past several years, numerous cut and fill slopes have been observed in the Regina area of Saskatchewan. Many of these slopes have remained stable for 4–6 years and then failed. There has been a 20 year history of observations on the Belle Plaine overpass west of Regina. Field and laboratory investigations have been conducted.With a knowledge of the geometry of the slope and failure plane, the simplified Bishop method of stability analysis was used to perform a 'back-analysis' to assess the shear strength parameters. The shear strength parameters from the laboratory program are compared with those calculated from the stability analyses. The analyses indicate that the peak shear strength parameters from triaxial tests on the softened Regina clay (i.e., c' = 5 kPa and [Formula: see text]), with the appropriate pore water pressures, give a factor of safety of 1 for the failed surface. The effect of spring thawing appears to be to produce the condition of most serious pore water pressures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (10) ◽  
pp. 1439-1452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emad Maleksaeedi ◽  
Mathieu Nuth

The suction stress characteristic framework is a practical approach for relating the suction and the water-filled pore volume to the stress state of unsaturated soils. It predicts the effective stress by developing the suction stress characteristic curve from the soil-water retention curve. In this framework, the effective degree of saturation is usually calculated by the empirical water retention model of van Genuchten (published in 1980). In this paper, the use of a generalized soil-water retention model proposed by Lu in 2016, which differentiates the role of capillary and adsorption mechanisms, in the suction stress characteristic framework is studied. A redefinition of the effective degree of saturation is suggested, by choosing the retention state where capillarity approaches zero instead of the residual retention state. The validity of this assumption is examined using experimental data obtained by unsaturated shear strength and retention tests and datasets collected from the literature. The proposed definition is applicable for a variety of soils where capillarity is the dominant mechanism in producing suction stress within the range of suction 0–1500 kPa. In addition, it is observed that the generalized soil-water retention model presents a more realistic prediction of unsaturated shear strength compared with empirical water retention models.


1998 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 873-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Lee Barbour

The constitutive relationship between water content or degree of saturation and suction is called the soil-water characteristic curve. The soil-water characteristic curve provides a conceptual framework in which the behavior of unsaturated soils can be understood. A historical review illustrates how the work of early researchers in soil science and geotechnical engineering laid the foundation for our current understanding of this relationship. Key elements of these early studies were a conceptual understanding of the soil-water characteristic curve as a relationship between the mass or volume of water stored within the soil and the energy in the water phase. It was on the basis of this conceptual model that current methods of measuring the soil-water characteristic curve were developed. Interpretative models for the distribution and geometry of the water phase in an unsaturated soil based on the capillary model have provided a useful conceptual model for understanding the effects of soil texture, gradation, void ratio, and compaction on the soil-water characteristic curve. The capillary model has also provided the foundation for recently developed techniques to predict the functional relationship between degree of saturation and shear strength, coefficient of permeability, coefficient of diffusion, and adsorption for unsaturated soils.Key words: unsaturated soils, soil-water characteristic curve, suction, shear strength, permeability, contaminant transport.


2020 ◽  
Vol 195 ◽  
pp. 02004
Author(s):  
Angelica Tuttolomondo ◽  
Alessio Ferrari ◽  
Lyesse Laloui

An effective stress concept for active clays is formulated to improve the modelling of these materials under a variety of environmental conditions. In particular, the mechanical effects induced by a change in the chemical potential of pore water associated with a change of its pressure (even in the negative range), as well as a change of its chemical composition, are considered. Some implications of the proposed framework are shown with reference to shear strength results related to unsaturated conditions. The proposed approach allows to describe the shear strength envelope consistently by using a unique set of shear strength parameters irrespective of the pore water chemical composition and of the saturation state.


2017 ◽  
Vol 79 (7-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heriansyah Putra ◽  
Ahmad Rifa`i ◽  
Joko Sujono ◽  
Alfira Silarukmi

The pore water pressure is the essential factor and plays a key role in the unsaturated soil parameters. Experimental works and numerical analysis were conducted to determine the critical condition of the slope stability due to the evolution of shear strength parameters. The effect of infiltration on the pore water pressure was evaluated. The filter paper method was conducted to obtain the matric suction in various degrees of saturation. The mechanical properties of the undisturbed samples were examined through triaxial and permeability test, respectively. WRPLOT ViewTM was adopted to assess the intensity and duration of the actual rainfall. The applicability of the psycho-empirical method in SOILVISION Database to fit Soil Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) was studied. GEO-SLOPE was used to assess the evolution of the pore water pressure and its effect on the safety factor of the slope. The evolution of pore water pressure induced the infiltration influenced the shear strength parameters and reduced the safety factor. The reduction 20% of cohesion was obtained and hence, the safety factor decrease to 1.0. The infiltration at the beginning of the wet season is the most critical condition that increases the soil moisture significantly.


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