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Hydro-mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soil with different specimen

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Article  in  Canadian Geotechnical Journal · December 2015

DOI: 10.1139/cgj-2015-0381

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 909

ARTICLE
Hydromechanical behaviour of unsaturated soil with different
specimen preparations
You Gao, De’an Sun, and Annan Zhou

Abstract: The effect of different specimen preparation methods (compaction, reconstitution) on the hydromechanical behav-
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Dr Annan Zhou on 05/26/16

iour and microstructure of soil was studied through a series of soil-water retention tests, triaxial tests, and mercury intrusion
porosimetry (MIP) tests on an unsaturated clayey silt. Key findings from this experimental study include the following. (i) The
air-entry value of the reconstituted specimen is higher than that of the compacted specimen with the same initial void ratio.
(ii) The reconstituted specimen exhibits a unimodal pore-size distribution and the compacted specimen exhibits a bimodal
pore-size distribution, according to results of the MIP tests. (iii) The soil-water characteristic curves and residual gravimetric
water content of compacted and reconstituted specimens are almost the same in the high suction range. (iv) The void ratio of a
reconstituted specimen decreases sharply with increasing suction value under an isotropic net stress (such as 20 kPa), while the
void ratio of a compacted specimen shows a small change for the same suction change process. (v) Under the same net confining
pressure, the shear strength of both compacted and reconstituted specimens increases with the suction increase. The shear
strength of the reconstituted specimen is higher than that of the compacted specimen with the same density under the same
suction and net confining pressure.

Key words: unsaturated soil, reconstituted specimen, compacted specimen, soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC), mercury
intrusion porosimetry.
For personal use only.

Résumé : Dans le présent article, on a étudié les effets de diverses méthodes de préparation de spécimens (compactage–
reconstitution) sur le comportement hydromécanique et la microstructure des sols grâce à une série d’essais de rétention d’eau
dans le sol, d’essais triaxiaux et d’essais au porosimètre à mercure (PM) réalisés sur un limon argileux non saturé. Les principales
observations effectuées grâce à cette étude expérimentale sont notamment les suivantes. (i) La valeur d’entrée d’air du spécimen
reconstitué est supérieure à celle du spécimen compacté, l’indice des vides initial étant le même pour les deux specimens.
(ii) D’après les résultats obtenus par porosimétrie au mercure, on constate que le spécimen reconstitué présente une distribution
de taille de pores unimodale et que le spécimen compacté présente une distribution de taille de pores bimodale. (iii) Les courbes
caractéristiques sol-eau et la teneur en eau résiduelle et gravimétrique des échantillons compactés et reconstitués sont presque
les mêmes pour des valeurs de succion élevées et faibles. (iv) L’indice des vides des spécimens reconstitués diminue fortement
lorsque la valeur de succion augmente dans des conditions de contraintes isotropes nettes (par exemple 20 kPa), alors que
l’indice des vides des spécimens compactés semble ne varier que légèrement en présence d’une variation de succion identique.
(v) Pour une même pression nette de confinement, la résistance au cisaillement des spécimens compactés et reconstitués
augmente avec la succion. La résistance au cisaillement du spécimen reconstitué est plus élevée que celle du spécimen compacté,
à densité, succion et pression de confinement égales. [Traduit par la Rédaction]

Mots-clés : sol non saturé, spécimen reconstitué, spécimen compacté, courbe caractéristique sol-eau (CCSE), porosimétrie au mercure.

Introduction
In the past two decades, a great deal of experimental studies
have been conducted to investigate the mechanical and hydro-
mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils. It is noted that
existing knowledge on unsaturated soils is almost exclusively
based on experimental studies of compacted specimens. With
regard to such compacted specimens, the soil is usually oven-
dried, crushed, and then sieved to dry soil powder. The dry soil
powder is then mixed with sprayed water to set the initial gravi-
metric water content to the target magnitude. Subsequently, the
wet soil is statically or dynamically compacted to a dry unit
weight (or void ratio). Aggregates of fine-grained soil particles are
formed when the dry soil powder is moistened (Tarantino and
de Col 2008). In general, neither static nor dynamic compaction is
able to remove the particle aggregates (Tarantino and de Col 2008;
Tarantino 2011). According to test results from mercury intrusion
porosimetry (MIP) testing, this sampling method leads to at least
two populations of pores (i.e., interaggregate and intra-aggregate
pores). The average size of the interaggregate pores, which are the
pores among the aggregates, is usually much larger than that of
the intra-aggregate pores, which are the pores within the aggre-
gates. However, the interaggregate pores, which are not as stable
as the intra-aggregate pores, can be removed by either wetting or
high pressure.
On the other hand, unsaturated soil samples can be prepared by
drying the saturated reconstituted soil consolidated from slurry,
which may better represent natural unsaturated soils due to low-
ering of the groundwater level or uplifting of the ground level.
Compared with compacted samples, in terms of the pore-size dis-

Received 10 August 2015. Accepted 15 December 2015.

Y. Gao and D. Sun.* Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
A. Zhou. School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia.
Corresponding author: De’an Sun (email: sundean@shu.edu.cn).
*Present (postal) address: 99 Shangda Road, Shanghai 200444, China.

Can. Geotech. J. 53: 909–917 (2016) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2015-0381 Published at www.nrcresearchpress.com/cgj on 21 December 2015.
 910
tribution (PSD), reconstituted samples usually contain a single
population of pore sizes and exhibit a unimodal PSD. With respect
to constitutive modelling, the reconstituted sample seems more
straightforward because (i) the stress history is relatively clear
during sample preparation and (ii) other influence factors such as
soil structure have been removed during sampling. In addition,
the modified Cam-clay model that was originally designed for
interpreting the mechanical behaviour of reconstituted saturated
soils is commonly employed as the platform to develop constitu-
tive models for unsaturated soils. Therefore, the experimental
studies on unsaturated samples prepared from reconstituted soil
should more closely coincide with the common approach for de-
veloping constitutive models (Zhou and Sheng 2009; Sheng 2011).
However, compaction is still the dominant sampling method in
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Dr Annan Zhou on 05/26/16
experimental studies and test results from unsaturated reconsti-
tuted soil samples (Jennings and Burland 1962; Cunningham et al.
2003; Jotisankasa 2005; Monroy 2005; Tarantino and de Col 2008)
are very limited in the literature.
Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the effect of different
sampling methods on the experimental results of unsaturated
soils. As remarked by Tarantino (2011), a comparison study be-
tween compacted and reconstituted unsaturated soils can lead to
(i) a better understanding of the role of microstructure in a soil’s
hydromechanical behaviour and (ii) a rethinking of whether the
current modelling approach based mainly on compacted soil
data can still be applicable for reconstituted unsaturated soils.
Through a series of laboratory tests, including isotropic compres-
sion, drying–wetting, and suction-controlled triaxial compression,
this paper presents a systematic comparative study to investigate
For personal use only.
effects of sampling methods (compaction–reconstitution) on hy-
dromechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils. In testing, the
state conditions (such as void ratio, suction, stress path, etc.) are
strictly controlled to be the same for specimens with different
sampling methods, to ensure validity of the comparison.
Material and testing procedure
A series of laboratory testing programs, including (i) water-
retention tests with deformation measurements, (ii) suction-
controlled isotropic compression tests, and (iii) suction-controlled
triaxial compression tests, were designed with the main objective
of investigating the hydromechanical behaviour of unsaturated
soil samples prepared via either the compaction or reconstitution
method.
Material and specimen preparation
The soil used in this study is Pearl clay, which has a liquid limit
of 49% and a plastic limit of 27%. Figure 1 shows the grading curve
of Pearl clay. It can be seen from Fig. 1 that the soil is composed of
26% clay and about 74% silt. The clay mineralogy compositions,
determined using X-ray diffraction testing, include quartz, pyro-
phyllite, and kaolinite in the dominant order. There is little ex-
pansive clay mineral in Pearl clay.
Specimen sizes for investigating the mechanical behaviour via
isotropic and triaxial compression tests were 38 mm in diameter
and 76 mm in height. Specimens were prepared via either the
compaction or reconstitution method, which are referred to as
the compacted and reconstituted specimens, respectively. Com-
pacted specimens were prepared by compacting the soil mixture
in a mould at gravimetric water content of about 26%, obtained by
spraying water over the dry powdered Pearl clay uniformly. Spec-
imens were compacted in six layers; each layer was statically com-
pacted by 15 blows using a 12 mm diameter plunger. The vertical
compaction stress is dependent on the force applied on the
plunger, which can be used to set different initial densities. In
terms of the preparation of reconstituted specimens, the pow-
dered Pearl clay was thoroughly mixed with water at a gravimetric
water content of about 100% to form a slurry state, and then the
slurry soil was consolidated one-dimensionally with a vertical
Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 53, 2016
Fig. 1. Particle-size distribution of Pearl clay.
pressure of 49 kPa. The size of the consolidation cell was 100 mm
in diameter and 150 mm in height. After the consolidation was
completed (i.e., the vertical deformation was stable), the soil was
removed from the consolidation cell via jacking equipment. The
gravimetric water content after consolidation was about 42.5%
and the degree of saturation was about 100%. The specimen for
tests was obtained from a consolidated reconstituted soil sample
using a 38 mm diameter cutting tube (76 mm in height). The
remaining sample was stored in desiccator covered with double
films to keep gravimetric water content constant. Initial suction
of the compacted specimens and reconstituted specimens was
measured by applying proper air pressure with the pore-water
pressure being measured by the pore-water pressure transducer
in the suction-controlled unsaturated triaxial apparatus (see Fig. 2).
Testing procedures
To measure the water retention behaviour of the soil in a wide
range of suction, two different techniques were used for suction
control. For suctions ranging from 1 to 1500 kPa, the axis transla-
tion technique was adopted in the pressure plate device, i.e., the
pressure plate method (PPM). For suctions ranging from 3 to
367 MPa, the suction was applied by means of the vapor equilib-
rium technique (VET) in desiccators.
Figure 3 shows the pressure plate device for measuring the
soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs), which is equipped with a
15 bar (1 bar = 100 kPa) high air entry (HAE) ceramic disc and
1500 kPa pressurizer. The HAE ceramic disc is sealed in the bottom
of the pressure cell and the water beneath the ceramic disc is
connected to the outside water volume tube. Based on the axis
translation technique, the matric suction was controlled by in-
creasing the pore-air pressure while the pore-water pressure in
the specimens was kept to atmospheric pressure.
The specimens, together with the stainless steel cutting rings,
were placed on the HAE ceramic disc in the pressure cell. The tests
were performed with increasing matric suction from 0 to 1500 kPa
by several steps. After the water and deformation of the specimen
reached equilibrium for the current suction level, the next suc-
tion level would be imposed. Water drainage from the soil speci-
men was recorded during testing. At the end of each suction level
step, the drainage valve was closed and then the applied air pres-
sure was released. The specimen was removed from the pressure
cell after which the specimen size was measured using a Vernier
caliper. Finally, the gravimetric water content corresponding to a
specified suction was calculated from the change in the amount of
water in the specimen during the test and the gravimetric water
content of the soil specimens after the test.
Published by NRC Research Press
 Gao et al. 911

Fig. 2. GDS unsaturated triaxial apparatus. HAEV, high air-entry Table 1. Saturated salt solution and correspond-
value. [Colour online.] ing suction (20 °C) (data from Greenspan 1977).
Saturated salt Relative Total suction
solution humidity (%) (MPa)
LiBr 6.6 367.54
MgCl2 33.1 149.51
Load cell NaBr 59.1 71.12
Loading ram KI 69.9 48.42
NaCl 75.5 38.00
Water level KCl 85.1 21.82
Reference
KNO3 94.6 7.48
water level
Outer cell
K2SO4 97.6 3.29
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Inner cell Top cap Fig. 4. Illustration of volume measurement for soil sample.
Coarse porous disk

Soil specimen
Differential pressure
HAEV
transducer
Displacement
transducer

Pore water
Air pressure line
pressure line
For personal use only.

Fig. 3. Soil-water characteristic pressure instrument. [Colour online.]

saturated salt solutions, as shown in Table 1. One of the drawbacks

VET is commonly employed to control high suctions for unsat-
urated soil tests (Delage et al. 1998; Tang and Cui 2005; Blatz et al.
2008). The VET uses chemical solutions, such as saturated salt
solutions, to generate constant total suction conditions in a closed
space (such as a sealed container). The potential of the chemical
solution forces the water potential in the closed space and that in
the soil sample to reach equilibrium. Greenspan (1977) collected
reference data for the values of relative humidity of different
of VET is that the equilibration time is very long (up to several
months) due to the very slow transfer rate of the vapour.
Two specimens (61.8 mm in diameter and 20 mm in height)
were prepared for the drying tests. The samples for the drying test
were prepared by cutting the saturated specimen into eight
pieces. Two of these pieces were put into a temperature-controlled
sealed desiccator on top of a saturated salt solution for 2 months
to reach equilibrium. One piece was used to measure the gravi-
metric water content and another was used to measure the vol-
ume of the irregular soil sample using the fluid displacement
technique (Péron et al. 2007).
The volume measurement procedure for the irregular soil sam-
ple consisted of the following: (i) the soil sample was immersed
into liquid paraffin for about 15 min to fill the soil surface pores,
(ii) this sample was removed and the excess liquid paraffin was
wiped from the soil sample surface, and (iii) the samples were
weighed before and after immersion into the liquid paraffin, as
shown in Fig. 4, and these “balance” values were recorded. The
buoyant force is the difference in the balance values. The volume
of the soil pieces was determined by the buoyant force divided by
the density of the liquid paraffin.
Test results and discussions
Effect of specimen preparation on water retention
behaviour
Figure 5 shows the measured water retention behaviour in
terms of gravimetric water content (w), degree of saturation (Sr),
and void ratio (e) versus suction (s) in drying tests on compacted
and reconstituted specimens using two methods (i.e., PPM and

Published by NRC Research Press

 912 Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 53, 2016

Fig. 5. SWCCs and deformation of differently prepared specimens Table 2. Samples for MIP tests.
during drying: (a) gravimetric water content, (b) degree of Initial Void ratio,
saturation, and (c) void ratio. [Colour online.] Specimen void ea, before
No. ratio, e0 MIP test Sample preparation method
(a)
50 CF 1.15 1.15 Compacted and freeze-dried
Gravimetric water content, w(%)

CSF 1.15 1.10 Compacted, saturated, and freeze-dried

RF 1.14 1.14 Reconstituted and freeze-dried
40 RA 1.16 0.94 Reconstituted and air-dried
Note: ea, void ratio after drying (i.e., freeze-dried or air-dried).

30
Compacted Reconstituted entry value of the reconstituted specimen is much larger than
that of compacted one. A plausible reason for this result is that the
20 soil structure of the former is more uniform than that of latter (for
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PPM VET e0
details see the MIP test results in next section). Hence, the water
retention features of soils are dependent not only on the density
10 1.08
1.12 but also on the microstructure.
Test results also show that the residual degree of saturation of
0 0 compacted and reconstituted specimens is almost the same
10 101 102 103 104 105 106 (about 5.5%). For the suction range that is lower than the residual
Suction, s(kPa) suction value (about 1300 kPa), the SWCC of the reconstituted
specimen is located to the right of the compacted one. However,
for the suction range that is higher than the residual suction
(b) value, the relationships between gravimetric water content and
degree of saturation versus suction can be considered to be
100 unique and different sampling methods do not affect the ob-
Degree of saturation, Sr(%)

served SWCC. The reason for this phenomenon will be discussed

Air-entry value in the following section (i.e., “Effect of specimen preparation on
80 microstructure”).
For personal use only.

Figure 5c presents the measured relationship between void ra-

60 Compacted Reconstituted tio and suction for the reconstituted and compacted specimens
with almost the same initial dry density. According to the change
of void ratio with increasing suction, the curve can be divided into
40
PPM VET e0 three parts. For the low suction range (i.e., lower than the air-entry
Residual suction value value), the void ratio hardly changes for the compacted specimen
1.08 while the void ratio for the reconstituted specimen changes sig-
20 1.12 nificantly as the normally consolidated clay is compressed due to
the increase in effective stress. For the intermediate suction range
0 0 (i.e., from the air-entry value to the residual suction value), the
10 101 102 103 104 105 106 suction increase leads to a decrease of void ratio for both speci-
mens. For the high suction range (i.e., higher than the residual
Suction, s(kPa) suction value), the void ratios are almost staying constant for
different suctions. Therefore, even for the same soil material, the
(c) variation of void ratio with increasing suction can be different,
1.4 owing to different microstructures introduced by different sam-
pling methods. It is also noted that the void ratio of the reconsti-
tuted specimen is smaller than that of the compacted specimen at
the high suction range. Compared with the compacted specimen,
1.2 the reconstituted specimen features the uniform microstructure
Void ratio, e

Compacted that can produce remarkable shrinkage due to suction increase.

1 Effect of specimen preparation on microstructure

The SWCC of soils depends on several factors, such as soil type,
mineralogical composition, soil structure, and stress states. For
PPM VET e0 Reconstituted the same type of soil, the effect of stress states on the SWCC can be
0.8 attributed to the effect of the void ratio change (Sun et al. 2007). In
1.08
addition to the void ratio, the microstructure of soils is another
1.12
important factor affecting the SWCC. The microstructure of soils
can be simply represented by the PSD, which can be determined
0.6 0 by MIP tests. The MIP testing apparatus used in this study was the
10 101 102 103 104 105 106 Micromeritics AutoPore IV with a maximum intrusion pressure of
Suction, s(kPa) 413.7 MPa.
There are two methods that can be employed to dry samples for
VET). The initial void ratio of two types of specimens is almost the MIP tests: air-drying and freeze-drying. Use of the air-drying
same (1.08 for compacted sample and 1.12 for reconstituted sam- method to dehydrate soil samples with high water contents for
ple). Figures 5a and 5b show that the air-entry values of the com- the MIP test can cause significant disturbance to the soil fabric, as
pacted and reconstituted specimens are about 100 and 250 kPa, it leads to volumetric shrinkage strain on soil samples (Simms and
respectively. Results indicate, for the same density, that the air- Yanful 2001; Mitchell and Soga 2005; Sasanian and Newson 2013).

Published by NRC Research Press

 Gao et al. 913

Fig. 6. Pore-size distributions of compacted and reconstituted samples: (a) cumulative distribution; log-differential PSD for (b) CF and CSF,
(c) RF and RA, and (d) CSF and RA. [Colour online.]

(a) (b)
0.5 0.8

Log-differential volume(mL/g)
Cumulative volume(mL/g)

0.4 CF
0.6
CSF
0.3
0.4
0.2 ea
1.15 CF
1.10 CSF 0.2
0.1 RF
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1.14
0.94 RA
0 -3 0 -3
10 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 10 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103
Pore diameter(μm) Pore diameter(μm)
(c) (d)
1.6 1.5
Log-differential volume(mL/g)

Log-differential volume(mL/g)
RF CSF
1.2 RA RA
1

0.8

0.5
For personal use only.

0.4

0 -3 0 -3
10 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 10 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103
Pore diameter(μm) Pore diameter(μm)

The PSD of an air-dried specimen is similar to that of a specimen
subjected to a high suction history. However, by using the freeze-
drying method, the fabric disruption caused by the air drying
method can be minimized. If implemented properly, freeze-
drying can essentially preserve the initial structure of the soil
specimen (Sasanian and Newson 2013). In this research, both
methods were employed. As shown in Table 2, compacted and
reconstituted specimens for the MIP tests were dried by either the
freeze-drying or air-drying method. In Table 2, C, R, A, F, and S
denote the specimens prepared by compaction, reconstitution,
air-drying, freeze-drying, and saturation, respectively. For exam-
ple, specimen CF indicates the specimen that was prepared by
compaction and then freeze-drying for the MIP test.
Figure 6 shows the PSDs of specimens CF, CSF, RA, and RF. The
value of total cumulative volume of specimen RA is smaller than
that of specimen RF, as shown in Fig. 6a. This can be attributed to
the air-drying method used for specimen RA, which caused a vol-
ume shrinkage (the void ratio of specimen RA = 0.94, whereas the
void ratio of specimen RF = 1.14). As shown in Fig. 6b, the distinct
bimodal PSD can be found for the unsaturated compacted speci-
men (i.e., CF), whereas the bimodal PSD for the saturated com-
pacted specimen (i.e., CSF) is weak. This observation is similar to
that obtained by Li and Zhang (2009) for a lean clay with sand. The
log-differential pore volumes of unsaturated and saturated com-
pacted samples are similar for diameters of about 2 ␮m, which is
the boundary pore diameter between the intra-aggregate pores
and the interaggregate pores. As shown in Fig. 6c, reconstituted
samples (i.e., RF and RA) exhibit a unimodal PSD with a peak
roughly between 0.1 and 2 ␮m. Therefore, MIP results show that
reconstituted samples contain only one type of pore (i.e., intra-
aggregate), while the compacted samples contain two types of
pores (i.e., intra-aggregate and inter-aggregate).
Let us assume that cylindrical flow channels with different di-
ameters (d) exist in the soil, and the key relationship connecting
the pore diameter with the imposed suction is the capillary law,
which can be expressed by
4␴ cos␪w
(1) s⫽
d
where ␴ is the liquid gas interfacial tension of 0.072 N/m at 25 °C
(Fredlund and Rahardjo 1993) and ␪w is the liquid–solid contact
angle, which can be assumed to be zero. When the pore diameter
is smaller than 0.2 ␮m, PDSs of four samples (i.e., CF, CSF, RA, and
RF) almost coincide with each other (see Fig. 6). Based on eq. (1), a
suction value of 1440 kPa corresponds to 0.2 ␮m pore diameter,
which is close to the observed residual suction value (1300 kPa in
Fig. 5b). This can explain why the specimen preparation method
no longer affects the SWCC in the high suction range (i.e., higher
than the residual suction value), as shown in Figs. 5a and 5b.
Figure 6d presents the PSDs of samples CSF and RA. Diameters
of almost all pores in sample RA are less than 2 ␮m. But in sample
CSF, diameters of some pores are larger than 2 ␮m. When the
imposed suction is lower than the suction value corresponding to
a 2 ␮m pore diameter in eq. (1), in sample CSF pores with diame-
ters higher than 2 ␮m have become dry while in sample RA all
pores are still filled with water. This means that the water holding
capacity of sample RA is higher than that of sample CSF with
almost the same initial void ratio (1.16 for RA and 1.14 for CSF). This

Published by NRC Research Press

 914 Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 53, 2016

can explain why the SWCC of the reconstituted specimen is lo- Fig. 7. Results of drying and compression tests on reconstituted
cated to the right side of the compacted specimen if the samples specimens: (a) void ratio versus suction under mean net stress
have the same initial void ratio, as shown in Figs. 5a and 5b. 20 kPa; (b) void ratio versus mean net stress. [Colour online.]

Effect of specimen preparation on hydromechanical (a)

behaviour in isotropic stress 1.2
Figure 7 shows the results of drying tests on reconstituted spec- Suction change
imens under an isotropic net stress of 20 kPa and compression
20 150 kPa
tests under different constant suctions. During testing, different 20 250 kPa
target suctions (s = 0, 150, 250, 350, and 450 kPa) were imposed on

Void ratio, e
20 350 kPa
the specimens under isotropic net stress of 20 kPa and then spec- 1.1 20 450 kPa
imens were isotropically compressed under constant suctions. As
shown in Fig. 7a, the suctions were imposed from an initial suc-
tion of about 20 kPa to suctions of 150, 250, 350, and 450 kPa on p=20 kPa
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specimens under an isotropic net stress of 20 kPa. In general, the

void ratio decreases with the increase of suction. The void ratio
1
does not change significantly when the suction increases from
350 to 450 kPa, which is consistent with the change of void ratio
presented in Fig. 5c. After the equilibrium of specified suctions
under an isotropic net stress of 20 kPa, the void ratio of specimens 0.9 1
decreases with the increase of isotropic net stress under constant 10 102 103
suctions (s = 0, 150, 250, 350, and 450 kPa) in general. The larger
Suction, s (kPa)
the imposed suction, the smaller the deformation due to the in-
crease of isotropic net stress. That is, the compressibility of the
reconstituted specimen decreases with increasing imposed con- (b)
stant suction during isotropic compression. For the specimens 1.2
with 350 and 450 kPa suctions, their void ratio changes slightly s(kPa)
with the increase of isotropic net stress, as shown in Fig. 7b. 0

Suction increase
The observed volume change behaviour mentioned above can 1.1 150
For personal use only.

Void ratio, e

be explained by the “SFG” model proposed by Sheng et al. (2008), 250

as shown in Fig. 8. In the plane of mean net stress versus suction,
the initial state of reconstituted specimens is at point A in Fig. 8.
When the suction increases, the suction path will move the
yield locus for the reconstituted soil from point A on the initial yield
surface Yin to points B, C, D, and E. As shown in Fig. 8, the yield
surface expands from surface Yin to surfaces Yd1, Yd2, Yd3, and Yd4,
corresponding to suctions of 150, 250, 350, and 450 kPa, respec-
tively. Expansion of the yield surface will generate plastic volu-
metric strain correspondingly. Once the suction is higher than the
air-entry value (corresponding yield surface is Yen), the soil will be
unsaturated. Increasing suction will cause the plastic volume
change, but the value of d␧pv /ds (where d␧pv is the plastic volumetric
strain) is decreasing because the shape of the yield surface is being
gradually changed with drying (e.g., gradually from curve Yd1 to
Yd4 in Fig. 8). As shown in Fig. 7, the void ratio of the reconstituted
specimen changes slightly with increasing suction from 350 to
450 kPa under a mean net stress of 20 kPa. According to Sheng
et al. (2008), loading at an unsaturated state will also change the
curvature of the yield surface of the unsaturated soil. With the
same loading of net stress, the shape change of the yield surface
becomes more distinct when the suction level is higher. During
loading, yield surfaces expand from Yd1, Yd2, Yd3, and Yd4 to Yc1,
Yc2, Yc3, and Yc4, respectively, for different suction levels (s = 150,
250, 350, and 450 kPa). Because of the bending of the yield surface
during loading (see curves Yc1, Yc2, Yc3, andYc4 in Fig. 8), the final
volume changes for all specimens are close to each other after
loading (the cross points between the p-axis and final yield sur-
faces are close to each other), as shown in Fig. 8.
Figure 9 shows the hydromechanical behaviour of reconsti-
tuted specimen A and compacted specimens B and C with two
different initial void ratios under isotropic stress states. Speci-
mens A and C with different preparations have a similar initial
void ratio for investigating their deformation characteristics.
Specimens A and B were prepared to ensure that the void ratios of
these two specimens are similar at a suction of 150 kPa before the
compression tests. The stress path consists of (i) drying from the
initial suction to 150 kPa under an isotropic net stress of 20 kPa
and (ii) compressing from an isotropic net stress of 20 to 400 kPa
350
450
1
0.9
0.8 1
10 102 103
Mean net stress, p (kPa)
under a constant suction of 150 kPa. Figure 9a shows the relation-
ship between void ratio and mean net stress for reconstituted and
compacted specimens tested by the aforementioned stress path. It
can be seen that the void ratio decreases slightly for the com-
pacted specimens with two initial densities and decreases more
distinctly for the reconstituted specimen, with respect to the
same drying path. The volume change behaviour of the com-
pacted specimens is different from that of reconstituted speci-
mens during the drying process, because the initial suction of
compacted specimens is about 120 kPa and the initial suction of
reconstituted specimen is about 20 kPa, and the stress path is
from point A on the initial yield curve Yin to point B for reconsti-
tuted soil, as shown in Fig. 8. In addition, the compression curve of
compacted specimen B is close to that of reconstituted specimen
A under the same suction of 150 kPa, as shown by the circles and
triangles in Fig. 9a. Thus, for comparing the shear behaviour of
two types of specimens, specimen B rather than specimen C for
the compacted one and specimen A for reconstituted one should
be used to eliminate the initial density effect.
Figure 9b shows the relationship between gravimetric water
content and mean net stress of reconstituted and compacted spec-
imens. There is no obvious absorption or drainage to both com-
pacted specimens during the imposing suction from the initial
suction value (120 kPa) to a suction of 150 kPa. For the reconsti-

Published by NRC Research Press

 Gao et al.
Fig. 8. Yield curves for reconstituted soils.
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Dr Annan Zhou on 05/26/16
Fig. 9. Results of drying and compression tests under suction of
150 kPa: (a) void ratio versus mean net stress and (b) gravimetric
water content versus mean net stress.
For personal use only.
tuted specimen, the gravimetric water content decreases dis-
tinctly when the suction is increased from the initial (20 kPa) to
150 kPa under a mean net stress of 20 kPa. Because the air-entry
value of the reconstituted specimen is about 250 kPa (see Fig. 5b),
915
the volume of drained water is equal to the change of the speci-
men volume in this suction range because the imposed suction is
less than the air-entry value.
Effect of specimen preparation on hydromechanical
behaviour in triaxial stress
To investigate the effect of specimen preparation on the stress–
strain relationships of unsaturated soils, the void ratios of the
reconstituted and compacted specimens were set to be almost the
same before triaxial shear testing by changing the initial void
ratio of the compacted specimens during preparation. From
Figs. 7 and 9a, the void ratio of the reconstituted specimens
changed distinctly during the drying process (i.e., drying from the
initial suction (20 kPa) to suctions of 150, 250, 350, and 450 kPa),
but that of the compacted specimen did not change significantly.
Thus, the initial void ratio of the compacted specimens after prep-
aration should be smaller than that of reconstituted specimens.
The states of all specimens after preparation are listed in Table 3.
With respect to the triaxial tests, all soil specimens were first
isotropically consolidated to a mean total stress, ptotal, of 20 kPa
and a pore-air pressure, ua, of 0 kPa. For compacted specimens, a
specific pore-air pressure of 250, 350 or 450 kPa was applied to the
specimens under the isotropic net stress, p, of 20 kPa. For recon-
stituted specimens, suctions were imposed from the initial value
to 250, 350 or 450 kPa on specimens under the isotropic net stress,
p, of 20 kPa in three different sequences: (i) in steps of 50, 100, 150,
200, and 250 kPa; (ii) in steps of 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 350 kPa;
and (iii) in steps of 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 350, and 450 kPa. The
specimens were thereby loaded to a specific isotropic net stress
(p = 200 kPa) step by step at suctions of 250, 350 or 450 kPa,
respectively. Then, they were triaxially sheared under a constant
suction of 250, 350 or 450 kPa and net confining pressure of
200 kPa along triaxial compression stress path (i.e., fi, gj, and hk),
as shown in Fig. 10. In Fig. 10, q is deviator stress.
Figure 11 shows the stress–strain relationships of reconstituted
and compacted specimens obtained from triaxial shearing under
suction s = 250, 350, and 450 kPa and net confining pressure of
200 kPa. In Fig. 11, ␧1 is axial strain, ␧3 is radial strain and, ␧v is
volumetric strain. Figure 12 shows the variation in gravimetric
water content and saturation degree of specimens in the same
tests. As shown in Fig. 11, the strengths of compacted specimens
C2, C3, and C4 and reconstituted specimens R2, R3, and R4 in-
crease with the increase of suction under the same net confining
pressure of 200 kPa. Under the same net confining pressure and
suction, the deviator stress–strain curve and strength of the re-
constituted specimen are distinctly higher than those of the com-
pacted specimen for almost the same void ratio before shearing
(e ≈ 0.93, see Table 3).
As shown in Fig. 12, the gravimetric water content of all
specimens decreases with increasing axial strain under constant
suctions. The degree of saturation of one compacted specimen (s =
250 kPa) increases slightly with increasing axial strain. Although
the gravimetric water content decreases slightly with axial strain
under suction, the volume contraction of this compacted specimen
during shearing leads to an increase of the degree of saturation. The
gravimetric water content of the reconstituted specimens is
higher than that of compacted specimens during triaxial shearing
at the same suction, as shown in Fig. 12a. The result is consistent
with the findings in Figs. 5a and 5b where the gravimetric water
content of the reconstituted specimen is greater than that of the
compacted specimen at the same suction in drying.
The difference in the stress–strain relationship and strength of
two kinds of specimens can possibly be attributed to the different
soil structures and different average skeleton stresses due to the
different degrees of saturation. To consider the effect of satura-
tion degree on mechanical behaviour, the average skeleton stress
is adopted for interpreting the observed stress–strain relation-
ships. The average skeleton stress can be written as
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 916 Can. Geotech. J. Vol. 53, 2016

Table 3. Gravimetric water content (w) and void ratio (e) of triaxial Fig. 12. Variation in (a) gravimetric water content and (b) degree of
specimens at initial state and before triaxial shearing. saturation of specimens during shearing under constant suctions.
[Colour online.]
Initial state Before shearing
Test Preparation Suction
No. method (kPa) w0 (%) e0 wc (%) ec
R2 Reconstituted 250 43.58 1.181 28.49 0.939
R3 Reconstituted 350 42.10 1.143 23.59 0.931
R4 Reconstituted 450 41.73 1.132 19.47 0.924
C2 Compacted 250 25.25 0.995 23.08 0.930
C3 Compacted 350 25.27 0.996 21.44 0.931
C4 Compacted 450 25.43 0.998 18.74 0.926

Fig. 10. Stress paths for triaxial shear tests.

Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Dr Annan Zhou on 05/26/16
For personal use only.

Fig. 11. Stress–strain behaviours of reconstituted and compacted

specimens during triaxial shearing under constant suctions and
confining net stress of 200 kPa. [Colour online.]

higher than those of compacted specimens. Hence, the soil struc-

(2) ␴ij ⫽ ␴ij ⫺ ua␦ij ⫹ Srs␦ij
where ␴ij is the total stress tensor, ␦ij is the Kronecker delta, ua is
the pore-air pressure, Sr is the degree of saturation, and s is the
suction.
The results shown in Fig. 11 are replotted in Fig. 13 in the space
of average skeleton stress ratio (q/p=) versus axial strain. As shown
in Fig. 13, the stress–strain relationship and strength are inter-
preted by using the average skeleton stress — the stress–strain
relationship and strength of reconstituted specimens are still
ture is another reason for the difference between two kinds of
specimens. In the following, the difference in two soil structures
is discussed from their PSDs. As shown in Fig. 6, the compacted
specimens exhibit bimodal PSDs with two populations of pores
(i.e., interaggregate and intra-aggregate) and the reconstituted
specimen exhibits unimodal PSD with one peak, which means the
compacted specimen has larger size pores (interaggregate pores)
than those in the reconstituted specimen with the same void
ratio. The PSD of the reconstituted specimen is more uniform
than that of the compacted specimen. Also, the maximum pore
size of compacted specimen is larger than that of the reconsti-
tuted one under the condition of the same void ratio. Thus, the
reconstituted specimen deforms less than the compacted speci-
men along the same loading path, as shown in Fig. 11. In addition,
the reconstituted specimens with 350 and 450 kPa suctions show
shear–dilation when the axial strain is larger than 8%, as shown in
Fig. 11. This is because the pore size varies within a narrow range
for the reconstituted specimen and dilation is easy for relatively
dense soils (e ≈ 0.93, as listed in Table 3). Figure 14 shows photos of
the reconstituted and compacted specimens after triaxial com-
pression tests under a suction of 450 kPa and net confining pres-
sure of 200 kPa. A distinct shear failure band can be observed for

Published by NRC Research Press

 Gao et al.
Fig. 13. Average skeleton stress ratio versus axial strain relation of
reconstituted and compacted specimens. [Colour online.]
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Dr Annan Zhou on 05/26/16
Fig. 14. (a) Compacted and (b) reconstituted specimens after triaxial
shearing under suction of 450 kPa. [Colour online.]
For personal use only.
the reconstituted specimen other than the compacted specimen,
which indicates that the stiffness of the reconstituted specimen is
higher than the compacted specimen.
Conclusions
Water retention and mechanical behaviour tests were per-
formed on compacted and reconstituted specimens of a clayey
silt, together with MIP tests to probe microstructures of the spec-
imens. The following conclusions can be drawn from this study:
1. Results of the water retention tests on the clayey silt show that
the SWCC (either w versus s or Sr versus s) of the reconstituted
specimen is to the right of the SWCC for the compacted one
with the same initial void ratio in the low suction range. The
specimen preparation method does not affect the SWCC in the
high suction range. This result can be explained by the differ-
ence in the PSD of the two types of specimens.
2. The stress–strain relationship and strength behaviour of the
reconstituted specimens are different from those of com-
pacted specimens for the same density along the same stress
path. Under the same net confining pressure, suction, and
density before triaxial shearing, the reconstituted specimens
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917
show higher strength, greater stiffness, and more distinct
shear–dilation compared with the compacted specimens. This
is because the pore sizes of reconstituted specimens are dis-
tributed over a narrower range than those of compacted spec-
imens.
3. Compressibility of the reconstituted specimens decreases
with increasing imposed constant suction during the isotropic
compression. Deformation of the compacted specimens is
much smaller than that of reconstituted specimens during
drying from their initial suctions to a given suction. These
observations can be explained by the elastoplastic model by
Sheng et al. (2008).
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude for the grants provided by
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11272194), the
National Basic Research Program of China (2014CB047001), and
the Australian Research Council (DE130101342).
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