GIAN course: Mechanics of unsaturated soils (December 2019)

Assignment-1

Sruthi R Krishnan
Ph. D Scholar,
IIT Madras
Question no 2. How mechanics of unsaturated soils can be useful in engineering
practice?

There are a wide variety of soils whose behavior is not consistent with the principles
of classical soil mechanics. The differentiation between saturated soils and unsaturated soils
become necessary due to basic differences in material nature and engineering responses

The geographic locations where these techniques were developed also played a role. The
present situation where the whole world is moving towards sustainable technologies
geotechnical fraternity cannot step back and stay with a very high factor of safety for the
designs. An engineering problem to handle as it is, cannot be simplified to a saturated
condition to solve it conveniently, even if it is safe. The conventional approach to unsaturated
problems can be summarized as either assuming it to be dry or assuming it to be fully wet.
The former is unconservative, and the later causes excess costs. Lab-scale studies and
geotechnical forensic investigations reported in the literature showcases the relative
importance of considering the soil problems in its unsaturated state itself (Houston, 2019).

A geotechnical engineer has to deal with pavements, earth dams, embankments etc.
which uses compacted soils that will be in unsaturated conditions in most of the cases.
Dealing with expansive, collapsible, and sedimentary soils also should be addressed from the
unsaturated perspective. As the population growth and industrialization demand the
utilization of all types of land for construction activities, managing constructions in
problematic soils become inevitable. It can be summarized as unsaturated soil mechanics is
essential for geotechnical applications, including slope stability, foundation engineering,
earth structures, retaining walls, buried structures, and for almost all geo-environmental
applications.

Question no 3. Discuss how the pore water pressure in both saturated and
unsaturated soils influence the engineering behavior of soil.

In saturated soils only a single stress state variable namely effective stress is required whereas
in unsaturated soil two independent stress state variables namely net normal stress and matric
suction is required. In saturated soil positive pore pressure is developed. This results in a net
loss in the effective stresses. Under undrained cyclic shear stresses in fine-grained soils, pore
pressure build-up occurs. Effective stress decreases and soil structure shows a tendency to
expand. Liquefaction of soil becomes a possibility as the effective stresses tends to zero.
In unsaturated soils, the pore water pressure developed is negative. Development of pore
water pressures directly influence the magnitude of intergranular stresses or effective stresses.
Hence the soil behaviour in shear and compression is affected.

Referring to figure, pore pressure becomes more negative in the dry season. Desaturation and
cracking of soil mass occurs as a result of evapotranspiration. The resulting tension applied to
pore water can exceed the lateral confining pressures leading to further desaturation of soil
mass. Pore water pressure distribution shows drastic variation depending on the climatic
changes.

There is increase in pore pressure with wetting. This may result in swelling or collapse
depending on the soil. Loss of shear strength is seen in some soils. Swell of compacted soils
can be attributed to mechanical and capillary components in addition to the osmotic
pressures.

Question no 4. Draw typical pore water stress profile of soil above GWT, That has
been subjected to (1) Excessive evaporation, (2) Flooding, (3) Covered surface. Also
explain the factors which influences the pore water stresses.

The factor that mainly influence the pore water stress are rate of evaporation
evapotranspiration, rete of infiltration climatic condition, relative humidity depth of ground
water table etc . The permeability of the soil controls the downward movement of water,
which will cause a change in the degree of saturation and hence pore water stresses. The
intensity of rain and the climatic conditions will contribute to pore water stress variation. For
a covered surface pore water pressure variation is negative but the variation is hydrostatic as
there is no loss or addition of water. Due to flooding the negative pore water pressure
reduces. With excessive evaporation the matric suction increases.

Covered
Excessive Flooding
evaporation

Unsaturated soil GWT

Saturated soil

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Question no 5. Briefly explain Boyle's law, Dalton's law, Henry's law and Ficks law
are used as tools in understanding the unsaturated soil behavior.

Unsaturated soil contains three phases; soil, water and air. Air and water behave as an
immiscible mixture and miscible mixture. The immiscible mixture is of free air and pure
water without any interaction. The water vapour may get mixed with air or air phase may be
containing vapour molecules. The air vapour mixture can be considered as a mixture of non-
reactive phases. According to Dalton’s law the total pressure will be the sum of partial
pressures of air and vapour which in turn depends on the specific proportions of air and water
vapour. Pressure volume relations between the air and vapour phases can be explained using
Boyle’s law. Under fully undrained conditions Boyle’s law can be used to calculate the
volume changes of samples. Boyle’s law relates change in volume to change in pore air
pressures within the sample. This method can be used to calculate volumetric strains and pore
air pressures in unsaturated samples. Three volume change measurements can be made
namely overall volume change, pore water volume change, and pore air volume change. Pore
air volume change is very difficult to measure. Henry’s law may be used to estimate pore air
volume change. According to Henry’s law, at a given temperature, the solubility of gas on a
liquid depends on its partial pressure above the liquid. Fick’s law of diffusion can be used to
relate the mass transfer of air to an air pressure gradient. Air diffusion is a consequence of
three processes: air dissolution into the soil pore water according to Henry’s law, dissolved
air diffusion through the soil water air interphase according to Fick’s law, and air coming out
from the solution according to Henry’s law.

Question no 6. Define Volumetric water content, degree of saturation, gravimetric

water content and explain the difference. Provide your justification why the variation of
these quantities with suction is commonly referred to as SWCC.

Volumetric water content: It is defined as the ratio of volume of water to the volume of soil
mass.
Vw
θ w=
V
θw = Volumetric water content, Vw = Volume of water, V = volume of soil mass
Degree of saturation: The percentage of voids filled with water is expressed as degree of
saturation.
V
S= w × 100
Vv
S= Degree of saturation, Vv = Volume of voids
Gravimetric water content: It is defined as the ratio of mass of water to the mass of soil
solids.
M
w= w ×100
Ms
w= Gravimetric water content, Mw = Mass of water, Ms = Mass of soil solids
The soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) defines the relationship between water content
and soil suction. It means how much equilibrium water, a soil can take at a given suction .
Although the SWCC will be influenced by applied stress, it is usually defined for conditions
where the normal stress is small. The recommendation is that the term ‘soil–water
characteristic curve’ be used in civil engineering related disciplines. The preference is to use
‘soil–water’ because it is the water content of the soil that is measured. The water content is
generally quantified in terms of gravimetric water content, volumetric water content, or
degree of saturation. Any one of these parameters can be used to define the SWCC, provided
that the reference volume of the soil remains consistent. The preference is to use the word
‘characteristic’ simply because it appears to have historically been the most common term
used in engineering. In addition, the ‘characteristic’ implies that the curve describes the
character or the behavior of the soil.
Gravimetric water content has been most commonly used in geotechnical engineering. It is
important to know whether reference is being made to gravimetric water content or
volumetric water content when dealing with unsaturated soils. The SWCC data are often
plotted using both volumetric water content and gravimetric water content. However, many
geotechnical engineering formulations, particularly those associated with fluid flow, use a
volumetric water content representation when computing unsaturated soil property functions
or performing further process analyses. The degree of saturation designation can be the
preferred representation of water in the soil when there is volume change as soil suction is
increased.

Question no 7. Draw SWCC Curve and explain all features of it. Explain how
SWAI influences the engineering properties of soil.

The curve is divided into three parts saturation zone, desaturation zone and residual zones. In
the saturation zone also known as boundary effect zone the soil is holding the water or
moisture to the highest degree of saturation. The moisture is said to be in a liquid phase.
There is also a continuity in the flow of water in this zone. The transition zone is that zone
when the moisture in soil started to decrease due to the air replacing water during suction. In
this zone there is still some continuous path for the flow of fluid. As air concentration
increases (more prone to suction) the capillarity flow will prevail in this zone. After a
continuous increase in suction, the amount of water present in the soil has reduced to an
extent that there is no connectivity between the water present in the soil, this is the residual
zone. In this zone the water will be getting adsorbed to the soil particles and it is very
difficult to get removed as in other two zones. In the residual zone there will be a phase
change of this water into a vapor state and the reduction in water will be due to this phase
change. The mode of reduction of moisture in this zone will mostly be due to evaporation.

Air-entry value: the suction pressure at which the degree of saturation starts to decrease due
to fluid flowing out of the soil caused by pushing air into the soil. It has a different value for
different type of soil.

Residual saturation: The residual saturation of water that cannot be pushed out of the sample
in liquid form but only in vapor phase.

Effect of air-water-interphase on engineering properties can be explained in terms of

increased suction pressure. With the increase in suction pressure the degree of saturation
decreases. As saturation reduces the shear strength increases, compressibility decreases and
the permeability decreases.. With more suction pressure more is the shear strength.
Question no 8. Draw the compaction curve and identify three points X, Y and Z,
which represents the wet of optimum, optimum and dry of optimum conditions. Discuss
how coeff of permeability and effective shear strength parameters differ for specimens
tested with initial conditions of X, Y and Z.
Dry Unit weight

Y
X Z

Water content

Soils compacted at different water contents will have different Dry unit weights as well as
different fabric or structure. With increase in water content density increases or void ratio
decreases up to optimum moisture content (In the figure point Y). The available flow paths
decreases and as an effect permeability of the soil decreases. The same logic if we are
following further increase in water content causes a decrease in dry density and permeability
should increase but the fact is not like that. Permeability will continue to decrease. The
reason is the change in structure. The soil which is flocculated structure at dry of optimum
changes to dispersed in the wet optimum condition. Soil in the dry of optimum condition
forms large clods compared to that in the wet of optimum causing a higher saturated
permeability.

Soils at dry of optimum shows steeper stress-strain curves compared to wet of optimum. Or
the strength and modulus of elasticity of soils at dry of optimum will be comparatively high.
At lower strains owing to the flocculated structure soil at dry of optimum will show higher
strength, but on continuation or at higher strains this flocculated structure will be broken
leading to similar strength for soils on either side of the compaction curve. As it is evident the
highest strength will be at the peak or at optimum condition. ( ie. at point Y in the figure)

Question no 9. Draw the SWCC of sand and clay ( As a relationship between

volumetric water content Vs. suction, and degree of saturation Vs. suction) Explain
differences in their characteristic behavior with the aid of these figures.

The loss of water from soils upon application of matric suction depends on the size of the
largest pores; higher the size higher is the desaturation. In case of sand, pore size is larger
compared to clay, and hence they start to desaturate at very low suction. In addition the pore
sizes are uniform which results in sudden drop in the value of saturation. This is the reason
for lower value of air entry for sands as well as steep nature of desaturation curve in SWCC.

In case of clays, the size of the pores are very small and also clays are hydrophilic in nature
which further limits the loss of moisture from them. This must be the probable reason for
broad shape of SWCC for clays.
100
Clay
Volumetric water content %

Clay
80 80
Degree of saturation, Sr

Shear strength, 

Clay
60 60
Sand
40 40
Sand
20 20 Sand

0 0
10 102 103 104 105 106 10 102 103 104 105 106 100 200 300 400 500
Suction, kPa Suction, kPa Suction, kPa