Critical Review of the Methodologies Employed for Soil Suction Measurement
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VIEW THE REPLYPublication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 11, Issue 2
Abstract
Modeling the behavior of unsaturated soils necessitates the measurement of soil suction and the establishment of its variation with the water content, which is commonly known as the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC). Several methodologies have been developed for measuring either total suction (sum of matric suction and osmotic suction ) or . While employing different methodologies for suction measurement, there is a possibility that various factors (viz., type of the soil, measurement methodology, range of the suction measurement, equilibration time, and presence of salts or contaminants in the soil) may influence the results and hence the SWCC. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the uniqueness of SWCC, determined by using some commonly adopted suction measurement methodologies. This study indicates that the SWCC established by adopting different methodologies may not be unique and is primarily influenced by the range of suction measurement. As such, it is essential to highlight the range of suction values involved for establishing the SWCC, to facilitate unambiguous modeling and to precisely understand the behavior of unsaturated soil.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 11 • Issue 2 • April 2011
Pages: 99 - 104
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 29, 2009
Accepted: Jun 10, 2010
Published online: Mar 15, 2011
Published in print: Apr 1, 2011
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