Effects of Dry Density and Grain Size Distribution on Soil-Water Characteristic Curves of Sandy Soils

The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) of soil plays the key roll in unsaturated soil mechanics which is a relatively new field of study having wide applications particularly in Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Engineering. To encourage the geotechnical engineers to apply unsaturated soil mechanics theories in routine practice, numerical methods, based on the SWCC and saturated soil properties, have been developed to predict unsaturated permeability function and unsaturated shear strength properties which are expensive and time consuming to measure in laboratories. Further, several methods have been proposed to predict the SWCC in order to avoid difficulties in measuring the SWCC in laboratories. It is time consuming and it may require special techniques or apparatus to measure the SWCC in laboratories. However, it is important to have laboratory measured data of SWCCs to enhance and verify the proposed numerical methods. Hence, employing a Tempe pressure cell apparatus, the present study aims to investigate the effects of dry density and grain-size distribution on the SWCCs of sandy soils. Drying and wetting SWCCs were obtained for four sandy soils with different dry densities. The test data were best-fitted using the Fredlund and Xing (1994) equation and found that the fitting parameter, a, increases linearly with increasing the air-entry value of the SWCC and the fitting parameter, m, decreases with increasing the residual suction of the SWCC. The results revealed that soils with a low density have lower air-entry value and residual suction than soils with a high dry density. Further, the maximum slope of drying SWCC and hysteresis of drying and wetting SWCCs decrease with increasing density of soil. The air-entry value, residual suction, and hysteresis (the difference between the drying and wetting SWCCs) tends to decrease when the effective D₁₀ of the soil increases. A soil with uniform grain-size distribution (the steeper slope in grain-size distribution) has a less hysteresis and a greater slope of drying SWCC than those of a non-uniform soil.     

Effect of temperature on the soil–water retention characteristics in unsaturated soils: Analytical and experimental approaches

In unsaturated soil mechanics, the soil–water retention curve (SWRC) continues to play an important role, since it provides the necessary links between the properties and behaviour of unsaturated soils with a variety of engineering challenges. The temperature has been identified as the main factor influencing SWRC as compared to a variety of other parameters. The goal of this research is to describe theoretical and experimental aspects of the temperature effect on unsaturated soil water retention phenomena. Theoretically, a brief review of the constitutive laws governing the thermal-hydro-mechanical (THM) behaviour of unsaturated soils is presented, along with links between variations in suction with water content, temperature, and void ratio. It also provides a broad framework that would to be well adapted to describing many specific circumstances. Through a closed-form predictive relationship that is developed in this framework, the effect of temperature is examined. By using this relationship, the soil–water retention curve at arbitrary temperature could be determined from one at a reference temperature, therefore significantly decreasing the number of tests necessary to describe the thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of a soil. Besides, the SWRC of kaolinite clay was also measured at three different temperatures in an experimental program. The test findings reveal that when the temperature rises, the SWRC decreases significantly. The experimental results were then integrated with sixteen other available data sets covering a wide range of soil types, densities, and suction to create a complete verification program for analytical models. The proposed model has a good performance and reliability in forecasting the fluctuation of non-isothermal SWRC than any existing model, according to statistical assessment results. The analytical model can be used to examine the thermo-hydro-mechanical characteristics of unsaturated soils in numerical simulations.     

侧限状态下高压实高庙子膨润土非饱和渗透性的试验研究

高放废弃物深地质处置库中,由高压实膨润土形成的人工屏障,起着阻障围岩中地下水渗入内库并引起核素迁移以及库内高放废物的辐射扩散的作用。因此,有必要研究侧限状态下高压实膨润土的非饱和渗透性能。采用瞬时截面法试验研究了侧限状态下高压实高庙子膨润土的非饱和渗透特性。结果表明:侧限状态下,干密度为1.7g/cm3的高压实高庙子膨润土的非饱和渗透系数,数值为1.13×10-13～8.41×10-15m/s,且与土中吸力呈非单一增减关系。当土中吸力约为68MPa时,非饱和渗透系数最小;吸力大于68MPa时,其非饱和渗透系数随着吸力的增加而增加;而当吸力小于68MPa时,非饱和渗透系数随着土中吸力的增加而减小。     

植被发育斜坡土体非饱和渗透特性的预测方法

非饱和渗透系数对评价非饱和土体的性质具有重要意义,尤其是对灾害频发的植被发育斜坡。然而现场试验或室内试验测量非饱和渗透系数耗费时间多,对试验设备要求高,为非饱和土体的渗透性研究带来很多不便。本文在对Brooks-Corey模型进一步推导的基础上,利用Bloemen提出的孔径分布参数计算方法来推求土体的非饱和渗透系数,只需获得土体颗粒组成、有机质含量、饱和渗透系数及重量含水量,就可以计算得到非饱和渗透系数的预测值,这样就提高了非饱和渗透系数的计算效率。同时,通过比较模型计算结果与HYDRUS-2D计算值,得知此方法应用于植被发育斜坡土体是可行的,而且有较高的精度,并提出了进一步的优化方向。     

Shear strength of an unsaturated weakly expansive soil

To study the weakly expansive clay obtained from a slope along Wuhan—Shiyan expressway in Hubei Province,soil-water property tests and some unsaturated triaxial tests with suction control were conducted,and the soil-water retention curve（SWRC） and unsaturated shear strength of this soil were obtained.Results show that the air-entry suction and the residual degree of saturation of the tested soil are 106 kPa and 8%,respectively.The boundary effect zone and the transition zone can be identified on the desorption curve,but the residual zone is not so obvious.The unsaturated shear strength increases as suction increases within the range of controlled suction in the test,and friction angle,b,in the triaxial shear test is 17.6°.Based on the results,constitutive models for predicting the unsaturated shear strength using the SWRC were evaluated,and comparisons between prediction and measurement were made.It is concluded that for engineering purpose,the constitutive model should be carefully selected based on soil properties when predicting the unsaturated shear strength using the SWRC.     

非饱和土的基质吸力和张力吸力

首先在既往关于非饱和土分类方法的基础上,根据孔隙水弯液面与土颗粒表面的搭接状态,将双开敞非饱和土进一步细分为搭接双开敞非饱和土和不搭接双开敞非饱和土。然后基于热力学原理,提出了另外一个与基质吸力紧密相关而又不同的吸力概念-张力吸力。通过基于水封闭非饱和土的理论计算,得出了张力吸力与基质吸力之间的定量关系,同时利用作者们所提出的等效吸力概念,对比了由基质吸力、张力吸力所产生的等效吸力,从而一方面揭示了张力吸力在非饱和土力学中的重要性,另一方面论证了等效吸力概念的科学性与实用性。     

考虑变形效应的非饱和土相对渗透系数模型

 相对渗透系数是土体非饱和渗流分析的重要参数,Mualem统计模型在土体相对渗透系数预测中得到广泛应用。然而,Mualem统计模型假定土体具有刚性的孔隙结构,因而无法反映变形对非饱和渗透系数的影响。笔者最近提出的变形土土水特征曲线模型为基础,建立考虑变形效应的非饱和土相对渗透系数的修正Mualem统计模型。修正模型引入某一饱和度条件下被水充满的平均孔隙半径这一参量,来反映有效饱和度及土体变形过程中孔隙形态变化对其非饱和渗透特性的影响。采用4种不同类型土体的非饱和渗透试验数据对修正模型进行验证。结果表明,修正模型给出的相对渗透系数预测值与实测值的均根误差相比Mualem统计模型减小27%,说明修正模型对于变形条件下土体的相对渗透系数具有更强的预测能力。研究成果为非饱和土渗流规律以及水–力耦合数值模拟等研究提供了更为可靠的理论模型。     

水-力耦合作用下干燥和湿润砂质黄土渗透特性试验研究

为探讨干燥和湿润砂质黄土在水-力耦合作用下的非饱和渗透特性,研制考虑水-力耦合效应的非饱和土渗透系数测量试验装置.针对不同初始含水率的干燥土柱和湿润土柱,采用湿润锋前进法开展一系列一维土柱渗流试验,得到水-力耦合作用下湿润锋、渗透系数与竖向变形的变化规律,并结合扫描电镜试验,揭示其微观机理.结果表明:①随入渗时间增大,...     

饱和、非饱和有机质粉土抗剪强度的对比

通过对饱和–非饱和淤泥土的抗剪强度和土–水特征曲线SWCC测试,以及利用SWCC对非饱和淤泥土的抗剪强度预测,结果显示了饱和土的抗剪强度τsat小于非饱和土的抗剪强度τunsat,预测与实测的非饱和抗剪强度基本一致,并且非饱和抗剪强度随基质吸力ψ增加而增大,也反映了野外现场的物理条件和应力状态对细颗粒土的性质有重要影响。     

非饱和原状和重塑Q3黄土渗水特性研究

为研究非饱和 Q₃ 黄土渗水特性,设计一套原状黄土取样设备,取得大尺寸原状竖直和水平土柱各 2 个;并制备 5 个干密度不同的重塑土样。对 9 个试样进行水平土柱试验,用 TDR 水分计和热传导吸力探头分别检测土样不同断面处的体积含水率和基质吸力。试验结果表明：土中裂隙的走向和干密度对入渗率均有影响。对于原状试样,浸水前期竖直试样入渗率要大于水平试样,湿润锋超过 50 cm 后,竖直和水平试样入渗率几乎接近一致。竖直与水平原状试样的非饱和扩散率主要差别在饱和度低于 0.6 的区域,饱和度高于 0.6 两者扩散率差别不大;对于重塑试样,低饱和度区域干密度对扩散率影响要大于高饱和度区域。同等干密度和含水率条件下,低饱和度区域重塑试样非饱和渗透系数大于原状试样;而高饱和度区域原状试样非饱和渗透系数大于重塑试样。取样方法和研究成果对同类工作具有重要参考价值。     

温控土工三轴仪的研制及其应用

为了研究温度对土的力学性质的影响,研制了一套温控土工三轴仪。该设备采用模块结构,体小轻巧;实现了三轴仪与恒温箱的巧妙结合,能经受高压高温;对温度、吸力、应力、应变既能较好地控制,也能较准确地量测;体变、排水、气压量测精度高,传压滞后小;数据自动采集处理,应用方便,造价低;能进行控制温度的饱和土与非饱和土试验。利用该设备对陶岔胀土进行了三种应力路径的控制温度的三轴试验,结果表明,温度对该土的变形、强度和土–水特征曲线有较大影响。温控土工三轴试验设备的研制成功为研究土的热力学特性提供了有力工具。     

合肥新桥国际机场原状非饱和膨胀土的土水特性研究

土水特性影响并控制着非饱和膨胀土的工程特性。基于扫描电子显微镜试验和GDS非饱和应力路径系统试验,对合肥新桥机场场地原状非饱和膨胀土在失水和吸水过程中土水特征曲线进行研究,并数值反演相应的土水特征曲线、相对渗透系数和土水扩散系数,研究得出工程区域原状膨胀土微结构易于形成微裂隙,吸湿土水特征曲线较失水过程的土水特征曲线存在明显的滞后性。数值分析结果表明,Fredlund模型与实测结果吻合较好,研究结果为新桥机场膨胀土地基处理方案的制定提供了一定依据。     

基于土水特征曲线预测城市固体废弃物（MSW）非饱和渗透系数研究

基于对人工配制的城市固体废弃物（ MSW ）的土水特征试验,研究了不同有机含量、不同孔隙比下 MSW 的非饱和渗透系数,得到了 MSW 非饱和渗透系数随有机含量和孔隙比变化的定量关系式。研究结果表明在双对数坐标系下, MSW 的气相和液相非饱和渗透系数和吸力几乎为线性关系;对于相同的吸力作用,孔隙比越大,其液相和气相非饱和渗透系数也越大;总体上液相非饱和渗透系数的变化范围为 10 ^{- 11} ～ 10 ^{- 5} cm/s ,气相非饱和渗透系数的变化范围为 10 ^{- 5} ～ 10 ^{- 2} cm/s 。与有机含量的变化相比,孔隙比的变化对 MSW 非饱和渗透特性的影响较为明显。公式验证表明,利用该方法预测已知成分和孔隙比的 MSW 的非饱和渗透系数是可行的。     

An Active Control System for Matric Suction Measurement

Matric suction is an important stress state parameter in unsaturated soil mechanics. Many studies have been carried out in the past to determine the matric suction through direct and indirect methods. Direct measurement of matric suction has been proven possible with high-suction tensiometer; however high-suction tensiometers are still susceptible to cavitation. The axis translation technique developed by Hilf (1956) has been employed in many laboratory tests for unsaturated soils to avoid problem of cavitation in the water pressure measurement system. However in laboratory testing of unsaturated soils, air and water pressures are usually independently controlled and there is no need for a feedback control. The matric suction of soil can be measured using a modified pressure plate apparatus by actively changing the air pressure to maintain the water pressure to be close to zero thus imposing negligible water content change in the soil. A major setback of the existing practice is the need to manually adjust the air pressure of the modified pressure plate in response to the changes in the water pressure. This paper presents an active control system for the modified pressure plate apparatus for matric suction measurement. The experimental results obtained from modified pressure plate apparatus with active control system show good performance as compared to the high suction tensiometer.     

Q_2黄土的非饱和直剪试验研究

改进了后勤工程学院研制的国内第一台非饱和土直剪仪,升级为四联非饱和土直剪仪。四联非饱和土直剪仪极大的缩短了试验时间,提高了效率。利用该仪器研究了原状、重塑非饱和Q2黄土的抗剪强度特性。试验结果表明,在试验研究的吸力范围内,原状、重塑Q2黄土的凝聚力均随吸力线性增加,内摩擦角随吸力的变化较小,可以认为是一常数;吸力摩擦角较大,说明Q2黄土的抗剪强度受吸力变化影响较大,也即受含水率变化影响较大。原状Q2黄土的抗剪强度大于重塑Q2黄土,随着吸力增大,结构性增强。     

Saturated anisotropic hydraulic conductivity of a compacted lateritic soil

This study focuses on the saturated anisotropic hydraulic conductivity of a compacted lateritic clayey sandy soil. The effects of the molding water content and the confining stress on the anisotropic hydraulic conductivity are investigated. The hydraulic conductivity is measured with a flexible-wall permeameter. Samples are dynamically compacted into the three compaction states of a standard Proctor compaction curve: the dry branch, optimum water content and wet branch. Depending on the molding water content and confining stress, the hydraulic conductivity may increase or decrease. In addition, the results indicate that, when the samples are compacted to the optimum water content, lower hydraulic conductivity is obtained, except at a confining stress equal to 50 kPa. The increase of the confining stress decreases the hydraulic conductivity for each of the evaluated compaction states. In the wet branch, horizontal hydraulic conductivity is about 8 times higher than the vertical value. The anisotropic hydraulic conductivities of the dry and wet branches decrease when the confining stress increases, and the opposite is observed in the optimum water content state.     

考虑蒸发影响的非饱和土坡渗流分析

运用分形模型理论预测了粘土、粉土与砂土的土-水特征曲线与导水系数曲线。讨论了大气降雨-蒸发作用对非饱和渗流场的变化规律。在大气蒸发作用下,粘土边坡表层土体的负孔压逐渐增大。随着降雨入渗,粘土边坡坡脚处的土体首先达到饱和状态,并出现正孔隙水压。在降雨过程中,粉土边坡与砂土边坡的坡脚处,难以形成正孔隙水压。粘土边坡的实际降雨入渗量较小,且与土体的初始含水量、降雨类型、土体的导水系数等因素有关。非饱和土的实际蒸发量不等于其饱和状态时的土体蒸发能力。当土体达到饱和状态时,两值相等。实际蒸发量与潜在蒸发量的比值是土体表层基质吸力的函数。     

Resilient behavior of compacted subgrade soils under the repeated triaxial test

Subgrade soils are very important materials to support highways. Resilient modulus (M_r) has been used for characterizing stress-strain behavior of subgrades subjected to repeated traffic loadings. Recently the repeated triaxial test procedure has been upgraded through AASHTO T 307. Since the testing procedure is still complex, the testing has not been widely implemented in practice. In order to evaluate resilient behavior of compacted subgrades soils, the repeated triaxial test and the unconfined compressive test as well as some fundamental property tests were conducted. In this study, the applicability of a simplified procedure with a confining pressure of 13.8 kPa and deviator stresses of 13.8, 27.6, 41.4, 55.2, 69 and 103.4 kPa was investigated on the typical sandy–silty–clay and silty–clay subgrade soils encountered in Indiana. The results obtained from the simplified procedure are comparable with those obtained from AASHTO T 307 which calls for 15 combinations of stresses. This shows the simplified procedure to be feasible and effective for design purpose. Some soils compacted wet of optimum moisture content showed an excessive permanent deformation. This phenomenon was investigated by the comparison of the unconfined compressive test and the repeated triaxial test results. For soils exhibiting excessive permanent deformation, use of deformed length is desirable for more accurate calculation of M_r. Usually the soils compacted dry of optimum shows the largest M_r for sandy–silty–clay soils due to capillary suction, but it is not necessarily true for silty–clay soils. A predictive model to estimate regression coefficients k₁, k₂, and k₃ using 11 soil variables obtained from the soil property tests and the standard Proctor compaction tests was developed. The predicted regression coefficients compare well with measured ones.     

Observed and Predicted Behavior of Maipo River Sand

At present, finite-element methods are frequently used in the analysis of geotechnical engineering problems. The selection of an appropriate constitutive law primarily involves balancing simplicity with accuracy. Given that many practitioners still use the hyperbolic model, the adequacy of a modified version of this simplified stress-strain relation-ship to predict the nonlinear behavior of granular soils, is herein examined. Drained triaxial tests were performed on specimens composed of Maipo River sand at different relative densities. These specimens were subjected to different stress-paths in order to an extensive comparison of the measured strains and the predicted values. In addition, laboratory plate-load tests were conducted on rough, circular and strip, surface footings, which were 100-mm in diameter and 60-mm wide, respectively. The testing box, with dimensions 1.05 m × 1.05 m × 0.65 m, was filled with air-dried sand by using a raining apparatus. A field plate-load test performed on dense sandy gravel was also analyzed. From the good agreement achieved between the empirical observations and both the calculated strains and load-settlement relationships, it is concluded that the proposed hyperbolic model predicts with sufficient accuracy the nonlinear response of granular soils in most practical cases, as long as the soil mass is not close to failure.     

分形理论在研究非饱和土力学性质中的应用

试验室内确定非饱和土的力学性质有许多困难,土体结构与其力学性质密切相关,土体结构可以用分形模型描述,分形理论能很好地用来估算非饱和土的力学参数。文中由非饱和土孔隙分布的分形模型导出了非饱和土的水分特征曲线、渗透系数、剪切强度的表达式,并与已经有的经验公式和试验数据进行了比较,验证了本文的理论结果。