Unsaturated Soils: Research and Applications

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

Unsaturated Soils: Researchand ApplicationsVolume 2

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 978-3-642-31342-4 e-ISBN 978-3-642-31343-1DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-31343-1Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012940418

c© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part ofthe material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or informationstorage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodologynow known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connectionwith reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being enteredand executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication ofthis publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of thePublisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer.Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violationsare liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law.The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoes not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevantprotective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of pub-lication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for anyerrors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respectto the material contained herein.

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

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

Modelling

Theoretical and Constitutive

The Effective Stress in Unsaturated Soils: Insights fromThermodynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Ehsan Nikooee, Ghassem Habibagahi, S. Majid Hassanizadeh,Arsalan Ghahramani

The Meaning of Stresses and Strains in Unsaturated Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Edward J. Murray, Vinayagamoothy Sivakumar

The Yielding of Unsaturated Granular Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Giuseppe Buscarnera, Itai Einav

Shear Strength and Negative Water Potential in Unsaturated,Compacted Clays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Sam Frydman

Modified Grading Curve – SWCC Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Emoke Imre, Kalman Rajkai, Tibor Firgi, Imre Laufer, Riccardo Genovese,Cristina Jommi

Fractal Soil-Water Characteristics with Hysteresis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Adrian R. Russell

Modelling the Water Retention Domain of a Compacted Scaly Clay . . . . 55Gabriele Della Vecchia, Camillo Airo Farulla, Cristina Jommi

Hydric Model of Unsaturated Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Zoheir Bellia, Moulay Smaine Ghembaza, Mohamed Rabhi

XII Contents

Evaluation of Various Soil-Water Characteristic Curve Models forSoils from Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Panagiotis Sitarenios, Michael Bardanis, Michael Kavvadas

Swelling Characteristics of Sand-Bentonite Mixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Sai K. Vanapalli, L. Lu, J.A. Infante Sedano, W.T. Oh

Elastic or Elasto-Plastic: Examination of Certain Strain Incrementsin the Barcelona Basic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Wojciech T. Sołowski, Scott W. Sloan

A New Procedure for Determining Parameter Values in the BarcelonaBasic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Francesca D’Onza, Domenico Gallipoli, Simon J. Wheeler

A Refined Approach to Barcelona Basic Model Using the ApparentTensile Strength Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Laureano R. Hoyos, Diego D. Perez-Ruiz

Modelling Volume Change Behaviour for Unsaturated Soils in theStress–Saturation Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111Annan Zhou, Daichao Sheng

Modelling Compacted Soil Behaviour Including MicrostructuralFeatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Nuria M. Pinyol, Eduardo E. Alonso, Antonio Gens

Influence of Anisotropy on Yielding and Critical States of anUnsaturated Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Muayad Al-Sharrad, Simon J. Wheeler, Domenico Gallipoli

Prediction of the Behavior of Loess with the Extended MRS-LadeModel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Ricardo Schiava, Facundo M. Cocco, Ricardo A. Schiava

On Elastoplastic Damage Modelling in Unsaturated Geomaterials . . . . . 143Solenn Le Pense, Behrouz Gatmiri, Ahmad Pouya

Unsaturated Resilient Behavior of a Natural Compacted Sand . . . . . . . . . 151Xuan Nam Ho, Hossein Nowamooz, Cyrille Chazallon, Bernard Migault

Mechanical Modeling of Frozen Soils Incorporating the Effect ofCryogenic Suction and Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Ajay Shastri, Marcelo Sanchez

Contents XIII

Numerical and Physical

Non Monotonic Imbibition Profiles and Transition to a Perched WaterTable in a Gradually Layered Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167Marco Peli, Stefano Barontini, Thom Bogaarda, Baldassare Bacchi,Roberto Ranzi

Hydro-Mechanical Modelling of the Development of Preferential GasPathways in Claystone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175Pierre Gerard, Jon Harrington, Robert Charlier, Frederic Collin

Simulations of Static Compaction with Soil/Water/Air CoupledF.E. Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Katsuyuki Kawai, Masaki Shibata, Takeru Ohtsuki,Viradeth Phommachanh, Shinichi Kanazawa, Atsushi Iizuka

Finite Element Simulation of Strain Localization in UnsaturatedSoils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189Xiaoyu Song, Gregor Idinger, Ronaldo I. Borja, Wei Wu

Reliability Assessment of Unsaturated Soil Shear Strength Using theJointly Distributed Random Variables Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197Ali Johari, Akbar Javadi, Farzan Zerangsani

Elaboration of a High-Dimensional Database of Unsaturated SoilsUsing Artificial Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207Vasileios Matziaris, Maria Ferentinou, Michael Sakellariou

Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity of a Silty Sand with theInstantaneous Profile Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215Amin Askarinejad, Alexander Beck, Francesca Casini,Sarah M. Springman

A Physical Model to Investigate the Influence of AtmosphericVariables on Soil Suction in Pyroclastic Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221Guido Rianna, Luca Pagano, Gianfranco Urciuoli

Artificial Weathering and Drying of Compacted Cohesive Fill in aLarge-Scale Environmental Chamber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229Kathinka Beyer, Jurgen Grabe, Volker Timmers

Effects of Grass Transpiration on Suction Induced in Near-SaturatedSoil Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237Kai Xiang Woon, Anthony Kwan Leung, Charles Wang Wai Ng,Lee Man Chu

XIV Contents

Engineering

Engineering Approaches and Case Histories

Effect of Partial Saturation on the Stability of Shallow Foundationsabove the Water Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247Brunella Balzano, Alessia Amabile, Gianfranco Urciuoli,Alessandro Tarantino

Estimation of the Shaft Capacity of Single Piles Using theConventional and Modified β Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255Z. Nil Taylan, Sai K. Vanapalli

Effect of Partial Saturation on the Stability of Retaining Diaphragmsabove the Water Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263Alessia Amabile, Brunella Balzano, Gianfranco Urciuoli,Alessandro Tarantino

Retaining Structure-Unsaturated Soil Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269A.T. Papagiannakis, S. Bin-Shafique, R.L. Lytton

Influence of Suction on the Behaviour of Retaining Walls in the Cityof Naples, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275Anna Scotto di Santolo, Lorenza Evangelista, Aldo Evangelista

Unsaturated Hydraulic Properties of Fine Particles of Fouled BallastLayer from an Ancient Railway Track Beds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283Trong Vinh Duong, Anh Minh Tang, Yu-Jun Cui, Nicolas Calon,Alain Robinet, Jean-Claude Dupla, Jean Canou

Settlement Prediction of High Speed Railway EmbankmentsConsidering the Accumulation of Wetting and Drying Cycles . . . . . . . . . . 291Rafaela Cardoso, Vasco Fernandes, Tiago Moco Ferreira,Paulo Fonseca Teixeira

Influence of Partial Saturation on the Compressibility of FoundationSoils: A Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299Francesco Carnevale, Federica Caneparo, Piero Pampanin,Francesco Colleselli, Gianpiero Mayerle, Valerio Volpe

Numerical Study of Canal Lining Behavior in Expansive Soils . . . . . . . . . 307Masoud H. Bonab, Fariba Behrooz Sarand, Majid Farrin

3-D Modeling of Soil’s Unsaturated Depth Using Artificial NeuralNetwork (Case Study of Babol) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317A.J. Choobbasti, E. Shooshpasha, F. Farrokhzad

Contents XV

Hydro and Hydro-Mechanical Modelling of Ventilation Test in ClayeyRocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325Benoıt Pardoen, Jean Talandier, Robert Charlier, Frederic Collin,Jean-Pol Radu

Numerical Modeling of the In Situ “Praclay Seal Test”. Comparisonbetween Model and Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333Guangjing Chen, Jan Verstricht, Xiangling Li

The Effects of Hydraulic Properties of Bedrock on the Stability ofSlopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343Amin Askarinejad, Patrick Bischof, Francesca Casini,Sarah M. Springman

Effects of Plant Transpiration on Suction Distribution in a VegetatedSoil Slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351Ankit Garg, Anthony Kwan Leung, Charles Wang Wai Ng,Billy Chi Hang Hau

Seasonal Effects in the Groundwater Regime of Unsaturated Slopes . . . . 359Marianna Pirone, Gianfranco Urciuoli

Suction Fluctuations in Unsaturated Slopes: Evidences from Two TestSites in Southern Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367Marianna Pirone, Gianfranco Urciuoli, Emilia Damiano, Lucio Olivares,Luciano Picarelli

Stability of Highly Overconsolidated Soil Slopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Aikaterini Tsiampousi, Lidija Zdravkovic, David M. Potts

Geo-environmental Applications

Adsorption of Heavy Metals onto Bentonites Used asBuffer/Backfilling Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385Yong-Gui Chen, Yong He, Yu-Jun Cui, Wei-Min Ye

The Chemical Analysis of Soils for Identification of Dispersivity . . . . . . . 393Amrita Maharaj

Predicting Relative Permeability of LNAPL Based on FractalGeometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401Miguel Alfaro Soto, Chang H. Kiang

Water Retention Curve and Shrinkage of Sludge from a LeachateTreatment Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409Julio Bizarreta, Tacio de Campos

XVI Contents

Wettability Assessment of an Oil Coated Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415Sergio D.N. Lourenco, Clare F. Wakefield, Robert Bryant, Stefan H. Doerr,Christopher P. Morley

Hydraulic Behaviour of a Waste from the Fertilizer Industry and ofMixtures of This Material with a Tropical Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423Tubal Matos, Vitoria Borges, Sarah Barbacena, Marcia Mascarenha,Manoel Cordao Neto, Lılian Rezende

The Roles of Solute Suction and Surface Tension in the Strength ofUnsaturated Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431Valentine Katte, Geoffrey Blight

Hydro-Mechanical Behavior of Compacted Kaolin ConsideringPercolating Fluids with Different Chemical Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439Rafaela Cardoso, Denise Barbedo, Daniel Ribeiro

Design and Construction of Large Lysimeters for MonitoringUnsaturated Transport of Contaminants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447Jonathan D. Asquith, David G. Toll, Karen L. Johnson

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455