Hydraulic hysteresis of natural pyroclastic soils in partially saturated conditions: experimental investigation and modelling

In many geotechnical applications, especially in the study of weather-induced landslides, a reliable soil hydraulic characterization in unsaturated conditions is required. Currently, the experimental techniques that neglect the hydraulic hysteresis represent the greatest limitation to landslide forecasting. In this paper, a procedure to obtain an unsaturated soil hydraulic characterization on natural pyroclastic samples is proposed and verified. The approach enables the evaluation of the soil hydraulic properties along the main drying path and wetting/drying cycles to fully quantify the effects of the hydraulic hysteresis. Pyroclastic soil samples collected at a test site at Mount Faito in the Campania region (southern Italy) were tested. The experimental investigation consisted of a sequence of testing phases: a constant-head hydraulic conductivity test, a forced evaporation test followed by several wetting–drying cycles, and a drying test in a pressure plate apparatus. The hysteretic model proposed by Parker and Lenhard (1987) was adopted to fit the data, while inverse modelling of the forced evaporation tests allowed to derive the model parameters. Therefore, the main drying and wetting branches and the soil response to drying and wetting cycles from any reversal point were reproduced with the model, which suitably described the hysteretic behaviour of the pyroclastic soil under all conditions and along all paths.

Stability and Time-Delay Effect of Rainfall-induced Landslide Considering Air Entrapment

Rainfall-induced landslide is a typical geological disaster in the Three Gorges reservoir area. The air entrapment in the pores of soils has a hindrance to the infiltration of the slope. It is mainly reflected in the hydraulic hysteresis after rainfall and the decrease of the slope anti-sliding force. A method considered the air entrapment of the closed gas in soil particles’ pores is developed to study the time-delay effect and slope stability under the rainfall process. The Green-Ampt infiltration model is used to obtain the explicit analytical solution of the slope infiltration considering air entrapment. Moreover, the relationship between the safety factor, the rainfall duration, and the depth of the wetting front under the three rainfall conditions (qrain=12, 26, 51 mm/h) is discussed. The results show that the air entrapment causes a significant time-delay effect of the landslide, and the hydraulic hysteresis is the strongest under the condition of heavy rainfall (qrain= 51mm/h). The time-delay effect lasts longer than low rainfall and heavy rainfall when the rainfall intensity (qrain= 26 mm/h) is slightly greater than saturated hydraulic conductivity Ks. Parameter analysis shows that when air entrapment is considered, the smaller the slope angle and the effective internal friction angle, the more significant the air entrapment has on the slope stability; the smaller the effective cohesion, the longer the air resistance lasts. Finally, the application of the Bay Area landslide is consistent with the actual state of the landslide.

A constitutive model for hydromechanically coupled behavior of unsaturated soils with hydraulic hysteresis

There are several constitutive models developed for understanding coupled hydromechanical behavior of three phase medium of unsaturated soils as well as models for explaining hydraulic hysteresis in water retention. However, very few attempts that merge the two aspects of behavior are available. This study develops a one-way coupled model for understanding the hydromechanical behavior of unsaturated soils. In addition to the hysteresis between main drying and wetting retention curves, the model considers non-uniqueness of retention behavior resulting from void ratio changes due to compression under the stress application. As for the elastoplastic stress strain relationship of soil skeleton, the model is based on the formulation of classical plasticity relying on the critical state concept. Consequently, volumetric deformation due to wetting-drying cycles and its effect on elastoplastic behavior through simultaneously changing matric suction is modeled. Model results are calibrated with the results of isotropic compression stages of triaxial tests at both constant suction and constant water content conditions.

Suction Stress in Unsaturated Soils Considering Hydraulic Hysteresis

Aims: To develop a flow-moisture model that allows determining the variation of suction over time, as well as the suction stresses, using the finite element method in a two-dimensional model of unsaturated soil through an analogy with a transient thermal problem. Study Design: The variables used in this study were soil suction, hydraulic conductivity, diffusivity and degree of saturation which was represented as the parameter of the Bishop’s effective stress equation. Place and Duration of Study: Graduate Engineering Department, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, between November 2019 and August 2020. Methodology: To establish the model, experimental Soil-Water Retention Curve was taken from Galaviz (2016). With this information, the curves of hydraulic conductivity and diffusivity were calculated with the methods of Fredlund et al. (2012) and Li (1996). In ANSYS 19.2, an analogous transient thermal analysis was run to determine suction changes over time in a 12 x 2.4 meters two-dimensional medium with an impermeable membrane at the center of its surface which was 4.8 meters long. Through these suction changes, the hydraulic hysteresis algorithm presented by Zhou et al. (2012) was used to calculate the respective degrees of saturation, which were considered as the parameter to obtain the suction stresses. Results: The changes in soil suction, degree of saturation and suction stress were properly modeled. Conclusion: When considering the hydraulic hysteresis cycles, both spatial and temporal variations behaved in a similar way in the parameters as well as in the suction stresses. Such stresses depended on the analysis period, increasing in the dry season, according to the precipitation-evapotranspiration model, and decreasing in the wetting season. A time lag was observed between the maximum and minimum stresses as greater depths were studied. Along the horizontal axis, considering the same depth, the stresses varied more in the areas adjacent to the impermeable membrane, while at the center this variation was practically null.