Unsaturated Soils: Research and Applications

Claudio Mancuso, Cristina Jommi,and Francesca D’Onza (Eds.)

Unsaturated Soils: Researchand ApplicationsVolume 1

ABC

EditorsClaudio MancusoDepartment of Hydraulic, Geotechnical and

Environmental EngineeringUniversità degli Studi di Napoli Federico IINapoliItaly

Cristina JommiDepartment of Structural EngineeringPolitecnico di MilanoMilanoItaly

Francesca D’OnzaDepartment of Hydraulic, Geotechnical and

Environmental EngineeringUniversità degli Studi di Napoli Federico IINapoliItaly

ISBN 978-3-642-31115-4 e-ISBN 978-3-642-31116-1DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-31116-1Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012940418

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Preface

These volumes contain the proceedings of the Second European Conference onUnsaturated Soils, E-UNSAT 2012, held in Napoli, Italy, in June 2012. The event isthe second of a series of European conferences, born on initiative of the researchersinvolved in the EU FP6 MUSE – Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils for Engineering –Research and Training Network, and follows the first successful one, organised inDurham, UK, in 2008. The conference series was then supported by Technical Com-mittee 106 of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engi-neering on Unsaturated Soils, which is very active in promoting new opportunitiesto bring together researchers and practitioners to share advances in unsaturated soilsmechanics and related engineering applications.

A collection of more than one hundred papers is included in these volumes, ad-dressing the three thematic areas experimental, including advances in testing tech-niques and soil behaviour, modelling, covering theoretical and constitutive issuestogether with numerical and physical modelling, and engineering, focusing on ap-proaches, case histories and geo-environmental themes. The areas of applicationof the papers embrace most of the geotechnical problems related to unsaturatedsoils. Increasing interest in geo-environmental problems, including chemical cou-pling, marks new perspectives in unsaturated soil mechanics. We hope this bookwill provide a valuable up-to-date reference across the subject for both researchersand practitioners.

The published contributions, coming from fourteen European countries and an-other fourteen countries all around the world, were selected after a careful peer-review process. We would like to acknowledge the work done by the reviewers, fortheir fundamental contribution in assuring the quality of the published papers. Wealso gratefully acknowledge our colleagues from the Organising and the TechnicalAdvisory Committees and the Authors for the valuable help they provided towardsthe outcome of the Conference. Special thanks are due to Dr. Marco Caruso, whotook charge of the final layout of the publication.

The Conference has been endorsed by the Universita di Napoli Federico II, andby the Politecnico di Milano. We thank the Italian Geotechnical Society – AGI –forsupporting the initiative in the National and the International community.

It is, with a sort of romantic attitude, that we acknowledge valued contributionsfrom all the continents, which reminds us of the role played by Napoli in join-ing cultures and peoples during its long lasting history of more than twenty-eightcenturies.

Claudio MancusoCristina Jommi

Francesca D’Onza

Committees

Conference Chair

Claudio Mancuso Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico IICristina Jommi Politecnico di Milano

Organizing Committee

Marco Caruso Politecnico di MilanoManuela Cecconi Universita degli Studi di PerugiaGabriele Della Vecchia Politecnico di MilanoAnna D’Onofrio Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico IIFrancesca D’Onza Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico IIMarco V. Nicotera Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico IILuca Pagano Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico IIGiacomo Russo Universita degli Studi di CassinoAnna Scotto di Santolo Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico IIGiuseppe Sorbino Universita degli Studi di SalernoDonatella Sterpi Politecnico di MilanoGianfranco Urciuoli Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico IIRoberto Vassallo Universita degli Studi della Basilicata

International Advisory Committee

Eduardo Alonso SpainMichael Bardanis GreeceGeoff E. Blight South AfricaLeonardo Cascini ItalyRobert Charlier BelgiumYu-Jun Cui FranceTacio M.P. de Campos BrazilPierre Delage France

VIII Committees

Augusto Desideri ItalyAldo Evangelista ItalyDelwyn G. Fredlund CanadaDomenico Gallipoli U.K.Kazimierz Garbulewski PolandBehrouz Gatmiri FranceAntonio Gens SpainGhassem Habibagahi IranLaureano Hoyos U.S.A.Emoke Imre HungaryNasser Khalili AustraliaSuhail A.A. Khattab IraqLyesse Laloui SwitzerlandFernando Marinho BrazilDavid Masın Czech RepublicFarimah Masrouri FranceGerald A. Miller U.S.A.Charles Ng ChinaLuciano Oldecop ArgentinaLuciano Picarelli ItalyHarianto Rahardjo SingaporeEnrique Romero SpainMarcelo Sanchez U.S.A.Tom Schanz GermanyDaichao Sheng AustraliaSarah M. Springman SwitzerlandAlessandro Tarantino U.K.David G. Toll U.K.Hirofumi Toyota JapanSai K. Vanapalli CanadaJean Vaunat SpainSimon Wheeler U.K.Tony L.T. Zhan China

TC 106 COMMITTEE ON UNSATURATED SOILS

The TC106 Committee of the ISSMGE plays a leading role in the promotion ofthe series of international and regional UNSAT conferences, assisting with techni-cal programs. The Committee promotes cooperation and exchange of knowledgein unsaturated soils including compacted, expansive, collapsible, arid, and residualsoils.

Committees IX

Organised by:

Università degli Studidi Napoli Federico II

Under the auspices of:

Contents

Experimental

Advances in Testing Techniques

A Double Cell Triaxial System for Unsaturated Soils Testing . . . . . . . . . . 5Joao Mendes, David G. Toll, Fred Evans

Performances of Two High Capacity Tensiometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Claudio Mancuso, Marco V. Nicotera, Raffaele Papa

A Local Monitoring of Water Content in Unsaturated Soil TriaxialTesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Jose Munoz-Castelblanco, Pierre Delage, Jean-Michel Pereira,Yu-Jun Cui

Effect of Intermediate Stress on Collapse Behaviour of a CompactedClayey Silt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Octavio E. Cardenas, Enrique Romero, Antonio Lloret, Josep Suriol

Unsaturated Soil Response under Plane Strain Conditions Using aServo/Suction-Controlled Biaxial Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Jose A. Cruz, Laureano R. Hoyos, Arcesio Lizcano

Behaviour of Compacted Clayey Silty Sand under Suction-ControlledRing Shear Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Laureano R. Hoyos, Claudia L. Velosa, Anand J. Puppala

Estimating the Retention Curve of a Compacted Soil throughDifferent Testing and Interpretation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Osvaldo Bottiglieri, Francesco Cafaro, Federica Cotecchia

XII Contents

Constructing Fast, Accurate Soil Water Characteristic Curves byCombining the Wind/Schindler and Vapor Pressure Techniques . . . . . . . 55Colin S. Campbell, Douglas R. Cobos, Leonardo D. Rivera,Kelsey M. Dunne, Gaylon S. Campbell

Enhancement of a Commercial Pressure Plate Apparatus for SoilWater Retention Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Marco Caruso, Cristina Jommi

Characterizing Liquid Phase Fabric of Unsaturated Specimens fromX-Ray Computed Tomography Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Kalehiwot N. Manahiloh, Balasingam Muhunthan

Water Retention Behaviour Explored by X-Ray CT Analysis . . . . . . . . . . 81Ismael Riedel, Edward Ando, Simon Salager, Pierre Besuelle,Gioacchino Viggiani

Detection of Fissures in Desiccated Soils Using Spectral Analysis ofRayleigh Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Bernardo Caicedo, Julian Tristancho, Luc Thorel

Field Scale Water Content Measurement by TDR Technique . . . . . . . . . . 97Armando Carravetta, Nicola De Paolis, Riccardo Martino

Use of TDR Probes to Measure Water Content in Pumiceous Soils . . . . . 107Raffaele Papa, Marco V. Nicotera

Observations from Borehole Shear Testing in Unsaturated Soil . . . . . . . . 113Gerald A. Miller, Charbel N. Khoury

Microstructure and Hydraulic Behaviour

Microstructure Characteristics of Unsaturated Compacted ScalyClay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Camillo Airo Farulla, Marco Rosone

Soil Fabric of Compacted and Natural Swelling Soils Studied byMercury Intrusion Porosimetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Hossein Nowamooz, Farimah Masrouri

Porosity Changes due to Hydration of Compacted Bentonite . . . . . . . . . . 137Marıa V. Villar, Roberto Gomez-Espina, Rocıo Campos, Icıar Barrios,Luis Gutierrez

Effect of Initial Water Content and Dry Density on the Pore Structureand the Soil-Water Retention Curve of Compacted Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145Emanuel Birle

Contents XIII

Water Retention Properties of a Compacted Clayey Silt IncludingVoid Ratio Dependency and Microstructural Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153Rodrigo Gomez, Enrique Romero, Gabriele Della Vecchia,Cristina Jommi, Josep Suriol, Antonio Lloret

Effect of Density in the Water Retention Curve of a CompactedSilt-Bentonite Mixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Emad Jahangir, Hossein Nowamooz, Farimah Masrouri

Effect of Vertical Stress on the Soil Water Characteristic Curve ofHighly Expansive Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Tamer Y. Elkady, Ahmed M. Al-Mahbashi

Role of the Soil Mineralogy on the Temperature Dependence of theWater Retention Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173Bertrand Francois, Sana Ettahiri

Water Retention Properties of Two Deep Belgian Clay Formations . . . . . 179Analice Lima, Enrique Romero, Yessenia Pina, Antonio Gens,Xiangling Li

Effect of Suction Changes on the Microstructure of CompactedCrushed Argillites under Constant-Volume Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185Qiong Wang, Chaosheng Tang, Anh-Minh Tang, Yu-Jun Cui

Water Retention Properties and Microstructure of CompactedExpanded Perlite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Marco Caruso, Donatella Sterpi

Water Retention Characteristics of Non-plastic Granular Materials . . . . 197Gilbert J. Kasangaki, Gabriela M. Medero, Jin Y. Ooi

Experimental Investigation of Hydraulic Conductivity in UnsaturatedCompressible Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205Ali Mirzaii, Seyyed Shahaboddin Yasrobi, Nasser Khalili

Examination of Unsaturated Conductivity Curves Using TransparentSoil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213Greg Siemens, Andy Take, Stephen Peters

Stress-Strain and Strength Characteristics

SWRC Modelling Framework for Evaluating Volume ChangeBehavior of Expansive Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221Aravind Pedarla, Anand J. Puppala, Laureano R. Hoyos, Sai K. Vanapalli,Claudia Zapata

XIV Contents

Wetting Characteristics of Compacted Bentonites at Large AppliedSuctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229Claire L. Bennett, Snehasis Tripathy, Hywel R. Thomas

Measurement of Swelling Pressure for Bentonite under RelativeHumidity Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235Tomoyoshi Nishimura, Junich Koseki, Masafumi Matsumoto

Swelling of Highly Compacted Bentonite-Sand Mixtures Used asSealing Materials in Radioactive Waste Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Simona Saba, Anh-Minh Tang, Yu-Jun Cui, Jean-Dominique Barnichon

Soil-Water Characteristic Curves and Evolution of the Tensile andUnconfined Compression Strength of Drying Slurried Soils . . . . . . . . . . . 249Michail Bardanis, Sofia Grifiza

Shear Strength of a Compacted Scaly Clay from Suction-ControlledTriaxial Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257Camillo Airo Farulla, Marco Rosone

Yielding Behaviour of an Alluvial Compacted Soil in Saturated andUnsaturated Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265Anastasia Capotosto, Giacomo Russo

Effect of Compaction Water Content on the Drained and UndrainedBehaviour of an Unsaturated Kaolin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273Roberto Vassallo

Shear Strength and Volume Change of Unsaturated Collapsible Soilby CW Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279Seyed Mohammad Ali Zomorodian, Ahmad Faghihi

The Effect of Relative Humidity and Temperature on the UnconfinedCompressive Strength of Rammed Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287Christopher Beckett, Charles Augarde

The Variation of Total Volume Change, Water Volume Change,Yielding Net Confining Stress and Shear Strength of UndisturbedUnsaturated Loess under Isotropic Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293S. Mohsen Haeri, A. Akbari Garakani

Collapse Potential and Permeability of Undisturbed and RemoldedLoessial Soil Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301S. Mohsen Haeri, Atefeh Zamani, A. Akbari Garakani

Geotechnical Behaviour of Unsaturated Tropical Clay Soils of Dhaka,Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309A.T.M.S. Hossain, David G. Toll

Contents XV

Shrinkage Characterization of Some Italian Clay Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317Claudia Meisina

Classification of Shrinkage and Swelling Potential of a Subgrade Soilin Central Thailand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325Auckpath Sawangsuriya, Apiniti Jotisankasa, Sekchai Anuvechsirikiat

Experimental Characterization of Shrinkage Behaviour of AustralianExpansive Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333Xianfeng Liu, Olivier Buzzi

Nonisothermal Shear Strength of Compacted Silt under High SuctionMagnitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339Nahed A. Alsherif, John S. McCartney

Matric Suction and Deformation Behavior of Unbound GranularBase (UGB) Materials under Constant and Variable Cell Pressure . . . . . 347M. Ohiduzzaman, S.C.R. Lo, Ovidiu Craciun

Wave Velocity Change and Small-Strain Stiffness in UnsaturatedSoils: Experimental Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355Milad Asslan, Frank Wuttke

Seismic Ground Response Analysis of Unsaturated Soil DepositsUsing Suction Dependent Shear Modulus and Damping Ratio . . . . . . . . . 363Mahnoosh Biglari, Iman Ashayeri

Ageing Effects on the Stiffness Behaviour of a MicrobiologicallyTreated and Compacted Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371Laura Morales, Enrique Romero, Jubert A. Pineda, Eduardo Garzon,Antonio Gimenez

The Effect of Treatment with Fly Ash and Cement upon theCharacteristic Curve of a Collapsing Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Percy Durand, Manuel Vazquez, Jose L. Justo

Influence of Kaolin Mixture on Unsaturated Shear Strength ofDecomposed Granitic Silty Sand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385Apiniti Jotisankasa, Auckpath Sawangsuriya, Patipat Booncharoenpanich,Suttisak Soralump

Mechanical Behaviour of Unsaturated Lime-Treated Clays:Experiments and Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391Maria Mavroulidou, Xiwei Zhang, Roberto Tamagnini, Michael J. Gunn,Worku Seyoum, Robert Hiley

XVI Contents

Collapse upon Wetting of Lime Stabilised Pyroclastic Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . 397Manuela Cecconi, Andrea Ferretti, Elisabetta Cattoni, Giacomo Russo,Anastasia Capotosto

Fabric Alteration of a Compacted Lime-Treated Expansive Soil uponDrying and Wetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405Guillaume Stoltz, Olivier Cuisinier, Farimah Masrouri

On the Resaturation of Swelling Claystone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411Mehrdokht Mohajerani, Pierre Delage, Mohammad Monfared,Anh-Minh Tang, Jean Sulem, Behrouz Gatmiri

Effect of Loading History on Time Dependent Deformation ofRockfill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419Enrique Romero, Eduardo E. Alonso, Clara Alvarado, Felix Wacker

Experimental Study of the Strength and Crushing of UnsaturatedSpherical Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425Bernardo Caicedo, Luis E. Vallejo

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431