Suction stress effects on stress-dependent resilient modulus of subgrade soils

Abstract

Since the resilient modulus is changed by suction and moisture conditions in subgrade soils, these effects should be considered in the model to rationally predict the modulus. The suction stress is one of the possible stress parameters for considering the influence of the moisture condition and can be taken into account in the resilient modulus. In this study, the average skeleton stress was proposed and the suction stress was applied to the model on subgrades. The predicted resilient modulus was compared with experimental data to evaluate the suitability of the established models. It was found that the suction stress has an independent effect on the resilient modulus and reasonably estimates the resilient modulus on subgrade soils in an unsaturated state.