Modeling the soil–water retention curves while the soil is deforming

Abstract

A porous-solid model based on the grain and pore size distributions of the soil is coupled with a mechanical model to simulate the soil–water retention curves while the material is deforming. During the determination of the main drying curve, the soil is subjected to high suctions which induce important volumetric deformations. These volumetric deformations modify the pore size distribution of the sample affecting both the drying and the wetting retention curves. Although, most deformation occurs at drying, the drying curve is only slightly affected by soil deformation. In contrast, the wetting curve shows important shifting when volume change is considered.

Keywords

• Unsaturated soils
• Soil–water retention curves
• Deforming soils
• Coupled models
• Effective stresses
• Porous models