Abstract
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.
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Abbreviations
- ac :
-
bubbling pressure in kPa
- AEV:
-
air entry value
- af, avg :
-
soil parameters which are dependent on the AEV
- hr :
-
suction corresponding to wr
- M:
-
molarity of the KCl solution
- mf :
-
soil parameter which is a function of wr
- mvg :
-
fitting parameter
- nc :
-
pore size index
- nf, nvg :
-
parameters which depend on the rate of extraction of water from the soil beyond AEV
- p:
-
vapour pressure of air
- po :
-
saturation vapour pressure
- PTF:
-
pedo-transfer function
- R:
-
universal gas constant
- Sr :
-
degree of saturation
- T:
-
temperature of the sample in K
- w:
-
gravimetric water content
- w(ψ):
-
gravimetric water content at any suction, ψ
- wo :
-
optimum water content
- wr :
-
residual water content
- ws :
-
gravimetric water content at saturation
- χ:
-
molecular mass of water
- γd :
-
dry unit weight
- γdmax :
-
maximum dry unit weight
- ψ:
-
total suction
- ψm :
-
matric suction
- ψo :
-
osmotic suction
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Thakur, V.K.S., Sreedeep, S. & Singh, D.N. Laboratory Investigations on Extremely High Suction Measurements for Fine-grained Soils. Geotech Geol Eng 24, 565–578 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-005-1147-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-005-1147-5