Article · Japanese Geotechnical Society Special Publication · April 30, 2019
The role of pore-size distribution function on the estimation of engineering properties of unsaturated soil
Qian Zhai, Harianto Budi Rahardjo, Alfrendo Satyanaga, GL Dai, XL Zhao
Abstract
Soil is a porous material which consists of a collection of soil particles with voids. The soil particles have different sizes with certain statistical distribution which are commonly described using grain-size distribution curve (GSD). The characteristic of GSD has significant effects on the engineering properties of the soil (especially for coarse-grained soil). On the other hand, the geometrical pore space in soil can be described by the pore-size distribution function (PSD). There are limited studies on the effect of PSD on the engineering properties of soil. For the soil with insignificant volume change, the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is considered to be analogous to the PSD. In this paper, the soil skeleton is assumed to be rigid and the roles of PSD on the air/water flow in the unsaturated soil and on the unsaturated shear strength are explained. The proposed theories utilizing different PSDs are able to estimate the saturated hydraulic conductivities of different soil types. The proposed theories and equations are verified with experimental data from literatures.
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