Unsaturated Shear Strength Research Articles

Evaluation of the effect of hysteretic flow and root system on shallow landslide

This paper analyses the mechanics of slope stability with regard to the hysteretic flow of unsaturated soil and the root system of the covering vegetation. The hysteresis of the soil water retention curves and root strength are important factors in the evaluation of unsaturated shear strength. Engineers should consider how the transportation of the soil water content and the plant root strength influence evaluation of surficial slope stability analysis. The integrated slope stability analysis considering the hysteretic flow and root strength were calculated on variations of the safety factor (SF) and in accordance with different infiltration profiles and several species of vegetation. The results show that it is possible to predict shallow landslide on unsaturated slopes covered by different vegetation types. Tree planting, in combination with mechanical reinforcement, on the slope’s toe was found to improve stability, in addition to having economic benefits. This process allows for the selection and comparison of combinations and densities of vegetation types, in order to find the optimum location for increased SF. This will quickly improve shallow slope stability before it is destroyed. A better understanding of the process mechanics, as provided by the model, is critical for a reliable and appropriate design for slope stabilisation.

Influence of soil type and stress state on predicting shear strength of unsaturated soils using the soil-water characteristic curve

Comprehensive studies on the prediction of unsaturated shear strength were performed using three commonly used empirical procedures: Fredlund et al. approach (published in 1996), Vanapalli et al. approach (published in 1996), and Khalili and Khabbaz method (published in 1998). Shear strength data published in the literature for 15 soils were examined using these procedures. Comparisons between measured and predicted values of unsaturated shear strength are presented for different soil types. The effect of stress state on the prediction of shear strength is also discussed.

Predicting effective stress parameter of unsaturated soils using neural networks

In the effective stress equation for unsaturated soils proposed by Bishop, shear strength in these soils depends on the effective stress parameter, χ, a function of soil suction [1]. To estimate the shear strength of unsaturated soils, one must already know this parameter and its variation with soil suction. Though theories on the shear strength of unsaturated soils are consistent with experimental measurements, estimating the effective stress parameter directly from tedious laboratory tests is impractical. Thus, researchers have performed numerous intensive studies to effectively obtain the unsaturated shear strength using simplified empirical methods. This paper shows an adaptive learning neural network method for predicting this parameter, χ. The proposed network is a multilayer perceptron network with six neurons in the input layer representing the air entry value, the volumetric water content at residual and saturated conditions, the slope of soil water characteristic curve, the net confining stress and suction. The available literature uses a database prepared from triaxial shear test results to train and test the network. The results show the suitability of the proposed approach for estimating the effective stress parameter. Network analysis indicates that the χ-parameter depends strongly on the net mean stress.

다짐된 불포화 실트질 모래의 흡수응력과 일축압축강도

In order to evaluate the effect of matric suction on the strength and deformation characteristics, the unsaturated unconfined compression test is performed for the statical1y compacted silty sand. Specimens used were made under conditions with various initial degrees of saturation. The initial matric suction, matric suction at the peak shear strength and the volumetric deformation during the shear process were measured. From these results, it was found that the initial degree of saturation exerts the influence on the behaviors of suction, peak shear strength and the volumetric deformation. Furthermore, the suction stress() which means the apparent cohesion due to matric suction in the unsaturated shear strength could be derived.

Determination of the shear strength of unsaturated soils using the multistage direct shear test

The determination of the shear strength of unsaturated soils is generally more complicated, time consuming and expensive compared to the determination of the shear strength of saturated soils. Although much research has been done on unsaturated soil testing methods, there is still a strong need to translate these studies into practice. Further studies are needed on practical testing methods that can reduce both the cost of and time associated with shear strength testing of unsaturated soils. This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of the validity of using the multistage direct shear test as a rapid and practical method to determine the shear strength of unsaturated soils. The laboratory tests were performed using a newly-constructed modified direct shear test apparatus that allows independent control of matric suction, referred to as a suction-controlled multistage direct shear test. Unsaturated shear strength was established using multistage loading over a range of net normal stresses and matric suction values. Shear strength parameters obtained from the multistage tests are compared with those from conventional direct shear tests using multiple soil specimens. Recommendations are given on how to carry out multistage direct shear tests to ensure reliable unsaturated shear strength measurements. The tests were performed on undisturbed soil samples obtained from the riverbank of the lower Roanoke River in eastern North Carolina, USA.

Application of suction stress for estimating unsaturated shear strength of soils using direct shear testing under low confining pressure

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate effects of suction on shear strength of unsaturated soils under low confining pressure and to examine the relationships between suction, shear strength behavior, and volumetric deformation using newly developed direct shear testing equipment for compacted weathered granite soils. The soil-water retention curves (SWRCs) of unsaturated soils were obtained under various overburden pressures. To analyze test results from the direct shear test under unsaturated conditions, a new method, suction stress–SWRC method (SSM), is proposed to determine the suction value for each overburden pressure and the suction stresses. As a result, it has been found that the stress states at the peak shear strength point are on the same failure line for the saturated state when the suction stress is treated as a component of confining pressure. The relationship between stress ratio and dilatancy for the saturated state can be extended to the unsaturated state. It is also noted that the estimated unsaturated shear strengths using the SSM agree well with the measured values from laboratory testing.

Shear strength of an unsaturated weakly expansive soil

To study the weakly expansive clay obtained from a slope along Wuhan—Shiyan expressway in Hubei Province, soil-water property tests and some unsaturated triaxial tests with suction control were conducted, and the soil-water retention curve (SWRC) and unsaturated shear strength of this soil were obtained. Results show that the air-entry suction and the residual degree of saturation of the tested soil are 106kPa and 8%, respectively. The boundary effect zone and the transition zone can be identified on the desorption curve, but the residual zone is not so obvious. The unsaturated shear strength increases as suction increases within the range of controlled suction in the test, and friction angle, φb, in the triaxial shear test is 17.6°. Based on the results, constitutive models for predicting the unsaturated shear strength using the SWRC were evaluated, and comparisons between prediction and measurement were made. It is concluded that for engineering purpose, the constitutive model should be carefully selected based on soil properties when predicting the unsaturated shear strength using the SWRC.

Probabilistic Analysis of Soil-Water Characteristic Curves

Direct measurement of the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is costly and time consuming. A first-order estimate from statistical generalization of experimental data belonging to soils with similar textural and structural properties is useful. A simple approach is to fit the data with a nonlinear function and to construct an appropriate probability model of the curve-fitting parameters. This approach is illustrated using sandy clay loam, loam, loamy sand, clay, and silty clay data in Unsaturated Soil Database. This paper demonstrates that a lognormal random vector is suitable to model the curve-fitting parameters of the SWCC. Other probability models using normal, gamma, Johnson, and other distributions do not provide better fit than the proposed lognormal model. The engineering impact of adopting a probabilistic SWCC is briefly discussed by studying the uncertainty of unsaturated shear strength due to the uncertainty of SWCC.

Effects of Dry Density and Grain Size Distribution on Soil-Water Characteristic Curves of Sandy Soils

The unsaturated soil mechanics is receiving increasing attention from researchers and as well as from practicing engineers. However, the requirement of sophisticated devices to measure unsaturated soil properties and time consumption have made the geotechnical engineers keep away from implication of the unsaturated soil mechanics for solving practical geotechnical problems. The application of the conventional laboratory devices with some modifications to measure unsaturated soil properties can promote the application of unsaturated soil mechanics into engineering practice. Therefore, in the present study, a conventional direct shear device was modified to measure unsaturated shear strength parameters at low suction. Specially, for the analysis of rain-induced slope failures, it is important to measure unsaturated shear strength parameters at low suction where slopes become unstable. The modified device was used to measure unsaturated shear strength of two silty soils at low suction values (0 ~ 50 kPa) that were achieved by following drying path and wetting path of soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs) of soils. The results revealed that the internal friction angle of soil was not significantly affected by the suction and as well as the drying-wetting SWCCs of soils. The apparent cohesion of soil increased with a decreasing rate as the suction increased. Further, the apparent cohesion obtained from soil in wetting was greater than that obtained from soil in drying. Shear stress-shear displacement curves obtained from soil specimens subjected to the same net normal stress and different suction values showed a higher initial stiffness and a greater peak stress as the suction increased. In addition, it was observed that soil became more dilative with the increase of suction. A soil in wetting exhibited slightly higher peak shear stress and more contractive volume change behaviour than that of in drying at the same net normal stress and the suction.

Shear Strength Equations for Unsaturated Soil under Drying and Wetting

Shear strength of unsaturated soil is an important engineering property in various geotechnical designs. In response to varying climatic conditions, unsaturated soil behaves differently under the drying and wetting processes due to hysteresis. Many research works were conducted and numerous equations were proposed for unsaturated shear strength, however, most of them were limited to the soil under the drying process. In this study, shear strength equations were categorized according to the nature of equation, i.e., fitting and prediction type equations. The purpose of this study is to propose prediction type shear strength equations for unsaturated soil under drying and wetting. Twelve published shear strength equations were selected for evaluation. A series of unsaturated consolidated drained triaxial tests were conducted on statically compacted sand-kaolin specimens under drying and wetting to examine the validity of the proposed equations. The experimental results indicated that the specimens on the drying path had a higher shear strength and exhibited more ductility, less stiffness, and contraction during shearing while the specimens on the wetting path had a lower shear strength and exhibited more brittleness, more stiffness, and dilation during shearing. The proposed equations were shown to provide the best predictions on the drying and wetting shear strength results from this study as well as published data in the comparison study.

Shear strength-suction relationship of compacted Ankara clay

The relationship between shear strength and soil suction of compacted Ankara clay was investigated at different moisture contents. Soil samples were tested at optimum moisture content (w = 20.8%), drier than optimum (w = 14.8%, 16.8%, 18.8%) and wetter than optimum (w = 22.8%, 24.8%, 26.8%). Direct shear tests were performed. Soil suctions were measured by the filter paper method after direct shear tests. Direct shear tests and soil suction measurements were also performed on soaked samples. The soil suction versus moisture content curve was developed. The shear strength variation with respect to soil suction was found for all normal stresses. The soil suction versus moisture content curves bear a close relationship to the unsaturated shear strength of the soil. An increase in soil suction increases the shear strength.

Research on stability of the accumulated rock-soil body of reservoir bank under rainfall condition

The shear strength parameters property of rock-soil aggregates in embankment slope of reservoir, that is, the relationship between cohesion and gravel content, between friction angle and gravel content, and the relationship between cohesion and water content, between friction angle and water content, is studied based on the direct shear test results, the shear strength change law of the rock-soil aggregates is given, and the unsaturated shear strength formulation of rock-soil aggregates that could consider suction and saturation degree influence is put forward in this paper, through which the sliding or failure physical mechanism of this type of slope under the condition of rainfall infiltration is studied. Also the 3D unsteady saturated-unsaturated seepage field and its FEM resolving mode are established based on the analysis of the slope rainfall infiltration process. Case study with this method indicates that the minimum safety factor of the accumulated rock-soil aggregates dose not arrive at the moment of rainfall cessation, but appears several hours after the rainfall cessation, this phenomenon is in accordance with the practical slope engineering’s failure process and could explain appropriately the slope failure caused by rainfall infiltration. Research results in this paper have an important reference value for the research on stability of the accumulated rock-soil aggregates in embankment slope of reservoir, and can enrich the stability analysis method and relevant theory of reservoir embankment slope.

Effects of degree of saturation on shallow landslides triggered by rainfall

The empirical rainfall threshold concept and the physical-based model are two commonly used approaches for the assessment of shallow landslides triggered by rainfall. To investigate in detail the rainfall-triggered shallow landslides, many physical-based models coupling the infinite slope stability analysis with the rainfall infiltration modeling in variably saturated soil were developed. However, in those physical-based shallow landslide models, the unit weight and the unsaturated shear strength were assumed constant rather than depending on the degree of saturation. In this study, the effects of the unit weight and the unsaturated shear strength as function of degree of saturation on rainfall-triggered shallow landslides are examined. Several designed scenarios and a real case scenario are used to conduct the examinations. The results show that not only the occurrence of shallow landslides but also the failure depth and the time to failure could be misassessed if the influences of degree of saturation on the unit weight and the unsaturated shear strength are neglected.

The influence of the grain-size distribution and soil structure on the unsaturated shear strength of loess sediments in Belgrade, Central Serbia

There is a negative pore water pressure or matric suction in the zone above the ground water level in silty loess soil, which can be as deep as 5-10 m in the Belgrade area. This primary characteristic of unsaturated soil, i.e., matric suction, should be included in laboratory testing and geotechnical analyses. Direct shear or triaxial testing of unsaturated soil are very expensive and time-consuming and require specially modified equipment. Instead, the prediction of unsaturated shear strength using the soil water characteristic curve, SWCC, and the effective shear strength parameters c' and ?' is a widely accepted practice. In this study, constitutive soil-water characteristic curves were obtained from the results of experimental testing by draining saturated soil samples under different pressures. This testing was performed for the first time in Serbia in a 15 bar pressure plate extractor according to ASTM standards. The laboratory testing included natural samples of loess sediments with the original macroporous structure and loess sediments with a destroyed soil structure. The influence of the grain-size distribution and natural soil structure on the unsaturated shear strength of Belgrade loess sediments above the ground water level was also evaluated. The obtained results are in accordance with the results from other investigations.

Numerical modeling of rainstorm-induced shallow landslides in saturated and unsaturated soils

For the assessment of shallow landslides triggered by rainfall, the physically based model coupling the infinite slope stability analysis with the hydrological modeling in nearly saturated soil has commonly been used due to its simplicity. However, in that model the rainfall infiltration in unsaturated soil could not be reliably simulated because a linear diffusion-type Richards’ equation rather than the complete Richards’ equation was used. In addition, the effect of matric suction on the shear strength of soil was not actually considered. Therefore, except the shallow landslide in saturated soil due to groundwater table rise, the shallow landslide induced by the loss in unsaturated shear strength due to the dissipation of matric suction could not be reliably assessed. In this study, a physically based model capable of assessing shallow landslides in variably saturated soils is developed by adopting the complete Richards’ equation with the effect of slope angle in the rainfall infiltration modeling and using the extended Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion to describe the unsaturated shear strength in the soil failure modeling. The influence of rainfall intensity and duration on shallow landslide is investigated using the developed model. The result shows that the rainfall intensity and duration seem to have similar influence on shallow landslides respectively triggered by the increase of positive pore water pressure in saturated soil and induced by the dissipation of matric suction in unsaturated soil. The rainfall duration threshold decreases with the increase in rainfall intensity, but remains constant for large rainfall intensity.

Application of fractal theory to unsaturated soil mechanics

The mechanical properties of unsaturated soils are a function of the saturation degree or matric suction, and can be obtained based on currently available procedures. However, each procedure has its limitations and consequently, care should be taken in the selection of a proper procedure. The fractal approach seems to be a potentially useful tool to describe hierarchical systems and is suitable to model the structure and hydraulic properties of unsaturated soils. In this paper, the soil-water characteristics, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function, unsaturated shear strength, swelling deformation and compression were derived from the fractal model for the pore-size distribution, and were expressed by only two independent physical parameters, the fractal dimension and the air entry value. The predictions of the proposed soil-water characteristics, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, unsaturated shear strength, swelling deformation and compression were in good agreement with published experimental data. Comparisons between the experimental results of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and the predictions of the both fractal model and the van Genuchten-Mualem model were also performed, and it was found that the predictions of the fractal model were better than that of the van Genuchten-Mualem model.

An Expedite Method to Predict the Shear Strength of Unsaturated Soils

An expedite method to predict the shear strength of unsaturated soils is proposed and tested against many soils of different origins and subjected to different test types. The method uses an empirical hyperbolic function that has been successfully used to fit experimental data. The parameters of this function are obtained considering effective shear strength parameters from saturated soil and from test results of air dried samples tested without the need of suction control. Air dried samples can be, alternatively, replaced by test results of samples tested at suction larger than the maximum suction expected in the problem under analysis. The good agreement between the estimate functions and the experimental data shown by both alternatives makes them promising and reliable to estimate unsaturated shear strength parameters for preliminary purposes.

A simplified procedure to estimate the shear strength envelope of unsaturated soils

Procedures that allow the prediction of some properties of unsaturated soils or the minimization of the number of tests needed to measure them are advantageous because the control of suction during testing is a formidable task that is time consuming and involves a great degree of expertise. A simplified procedure is proposed in this paper to estimate the shear strength of an unsaturated soil. The procedure is based on an empirical hyperbolic function that has been successfully used to fit experimental data. The function requires two input values, namely the shear strength of a saturated sample and the shear strength of an air-dried sample tested without the need for suction control. Samples tested under a controlled suction larger than the maximum suction expected in the problem can, alternatively, replace the air-dried samples. Both alternatives were tested against results for various soils reported in the literature. The good agreement between the estimates and the experimental data indicates that the proposed procedure is promising and reliable for estimating preliminary unsaturated shear strength parameters.Key words: unsaturated soil, suction, shear strength, prediction, laboratory tests.

Suction Stress Characteristic Curve for Unsaturated Soil

The concept of the suction stress characteristic curve (SSCC) for unsaturated soil is presented. Particle-scale equilibrium analyses are employed to distinguish three types of interparticle forces: (1) active forces transmitted through the soil grains; (2) active forces at or near interparticle contacts; and (3) passive, or counterbalancing, forces at or near interparticle contacts. It is proposed that the second type of force, which includes physicochemical forces, cementation forces, surface tension forces, and the force arising from negative pore-water pressure, may be conceptually combined into a macroscopic stress called suction stress. Suction stress characteristically depends on degree of saturation, water content, or matric suction through the SSCC, thus paralleling well-established concepts of the soil–water characteristic curve and hydraulic conductivity function for unsaturated soils. The existence and behavior of the SSCC are experimentally validated by considering unsaturated shear strength data for a variety of soil types in the literature. Its characteristic nature and a methodology for its determination are demonstrated. The experimental evidence shows that both Mohr–Coulomb failure and critical state failure can be well represented by the SSCC concept. The SSCC provides a potentially simple and practical way to describe the state of stress in unsaturated soil.

Cohesion of unsaturated residual soils as a function of volumetric water content

Soil cohesion changes with the moisture state of a soil. This paper presents an empirical equation to predict the cohesive component in the shear strength of unsaturated residual soils as an exponential function of volumetric water content. The formulation originated from a multiple linear-regression analysis for data sets obtained from shear tests using undisturbed soils with varying moisture contents. The empirical equations can realistically predict the reduction in soil cohesion due to wetting (R 2=0.88, 0.93). The methodology described in this paper provides a convenient alternative to the quantitative estimation of unsaturated shear strength, especially in an engineering practice such as a slope stability analysis as no matrix suction data are required.