TECHNICAL PAPERS
Oct 1, 2004

Profiles of Steady-State Suction Stress in Unsaturated Soils

Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 130, Issue 10

Abstract

Application of the effective stress principle in unsaturated geotechnical engineering problems often requires explicit knowledge of the stress acting on the soil skeleton due to suction pore water pressure. This stress is defined herein as the suction stress. A theoretical formulation of suction stress profiles, based on the soil water characteristics curve, the soil permeability characteristic curve, and previous shear strength experimental verification, is developed. The theory provides a general quantitative way to calculate vertical suction stress profiles in various unsaturated soils under steady flow rate in the form of infiltration or evaporation.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

References

1.
Bao, C.G., Gong, B., and Zhan, L. ( 1998). “Properties of unsaturated soils and slope stability of expansive soil.” Keynote Lecture, in UNSAT 98, the 2nd Int. Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Beijing.
2.
Bear, J. ( 1975). Dynamics of fluids in porous media, American Elsevier, New York.
3.
Bishop, A. W. (1954). “The use of pore pressure coefficients in practice.” Geotechnique, 4, 148–152.
4.
Bishop, A. W. (1959). “The principle of effective stress.” Tek. Ukeblad, 106(39), 859–563.
5.
Blight, G.E. ( 1961). “Strength and consolidation characteristics of compacted soils.” PhD dissertation, University of London, London.
6.
Brooks, R.H., and Corey, A.T. ( 1964). “Hydraulic properties of porous media.” Colorado State University Hydrology Paper No. 3.
7.
Cho, G. C., and Santamarina, J. C. (2001). “Unsaturated particulate materials—Particle-level studies.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 127(1), 84–96.
8.
Donald, I.B. ( 1961). “The mechanical properties of saturated and partly saturated soils with special reference to negative pore water pressure.” PhD dissertation, University of London, London.
9.
Escario, V., and Juca, J. ( 1989). “Strength and deformation of partly saturated soils.” Proc., 12th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 3, 43–46, Rio de Janeiro.
10.
Fisher, R. A. (1926). “On the capillary forces in an ideal soil.” J. Agric. Sci., 16, 492–505.
11.
Fredlund, D.G., Ng, C.W. W., Rahardjo, H., and Leong, E.C. ( 2001). “Unsaturated soil mechanics: Who needs it?” Geotech. News, December. GeoSpec., Bi-Tech Publishing. Vancouver, B.C. Canada, 43–45
12.
Fredlund, D. G., and Xing, A. (1994). “Equations for the soil-water characteristic curve.” Can. Geotech. J., 31, 521–532.
13.
Gardner, W. R. (1958). “Steady state solutions of the unsaturated moisture flow equation with application to evaporation from a water table,” Soil Sci., 85, 228–232.
14.
Iwata, S., and Tabuchi, T. ( 1988). Soil water interaction: Mechanisms and applications, Marcel Dekker, New York.
15.
Khalili, N., and Khabbaz, M. H. (1998). “A unique relationship for the determination of the shear strength of unsaturated soils,” Geotechnique, 48(5), 681–687.
16.
Krahn, J., Fredlund, D. G., and Klassen, M. J. (1989). “Effect of soil suction on slope stability at Notch Hill.” Can. Geotech. J., 26, 269–278.
17.
Marshall, T.J., and Holmes, J.W. ( 1988). Soil Physics, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
18.
Oberg, A., and Sallfors, G. (1997). “Determination of shear strength parameters of unsaturated silts and sands based on the water retention curve.” Geotech. Test. J., 20(1), 40–48.
19.
Phillips, J.R. ( 1987). “The quasi-linear analysis, the scattering analog and other aspects of infiltration and seepage.” Infiltration development and application, Y. S. Fok, ed., Water Resources Research Center, Univ. of Hawaii, Hawaii., 1–27.
20.
Rahardjo, H., and Leong, E.C. ( 1997). “Soil-water characteristic curves and flux boundary problems.” Proc., Unsaturated Soil Engineering Practice, GSP No. 68, S. L. Houston and D. G. Fredlund, eds., ASCE, 89–112.
21.
Singh, V.P. ( 1997). Kinematic wave modeling in water resources, Wiley, New York.
22.
Sparks, A.D. W. ( 1961). “Partially saturated soils-classification; compressibility of the fluid phase; and the stress equations.” MSc thesis, Univ. of the Witwatersrand.
23.
Stephens, D.B. ( 1995). Vadose zone hydrology, CRC, Boca Raton, Fla.
24.
Terzaghi, K. ( 1925). Erdbaumechanik, Vienna, Franz Deuticke.
25.
Terzaghi, K. ( 1943). Theoretical soil mechanics, Wiley, New York.
26.
Totoev, Y. Z., and Kleeman, P. W. (1998). “An infiltration model to predict suction changes in the soil profile.” Water Resour. Res., 34(7), 1617–1622.
27.
Vanapalli, S.K., and Fredlund, D.G. ( 2000). “Comparison of different procedure to predict unsaturated soil shear strength.” Proc., Advances in unsaturated geotechnics, GSP No. 99, C. D. Shackelford, S. L. Houston, and N. Y. Chang, eds., ASCE, 195–209.
28.
Vanapalli, S. K., Fredlund, D. G., Pufahl, D. E., and Clifton, A. W. (1996). “Model for the prediction of shear strength with respect to soil suction.” Can. Geotech. J., 33, 379–392.
29.
Van Genuchten, M. T. (1980). “A closed form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44, 892–898.
30.
Wilson, G.W. ( 1997). “Surface flux boundary modeling for unsaturated soils.” Proc., Unsaturated Soil Engineering Practice, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 68, ASCE.
31.
Yeh, T.-C. J. (1989). “One-dimensional steady state infiltration in heterogeneous soils.” Water Resour. Res., 25(10), 2149–2158.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 130Issue 10October 2004
Pages: 1063 - 1076

History

Published online: Oct 1, 2004
Published in print: Oct 2004

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Ning Lu, M.ASCE
Professor, Colorado School of Mines, Division of Engineering, Golden, CO 80401. E-mail: [email protected]
D. V. Griffiths, F.ASCE
Professor, Colorado School of Mines, Division of Engineering, Golden, CO 80401. E-mail: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

Cited by

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share