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Suction Stress of Clay Over a Wide Range of Saturation

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Abstract

Quantifying the relationship between water retention and internal stress state of unsaturated soils has long been a challenge. Current effective stress formulations can effectively capture the relationship for coarse-grained soils, where capillary mechanisms dominate internal stress state over a wide range of saturation, but fail for fine-grained soils, particularly at low to intermediate saturation, where surface adsorption mechanisms dominate water retention and corresponding stress state. Internal stress state of compacted kaolinite specimens spanning saturation (S) from 0 to 0.73 is measured through Brazilian tensile strength tests. Changes observed in strength, strain, and stiffness are analyzed to calculate evolution of internal stress with saturation. A model is proposed to quantify the relationship between water retention and internal stress for fine-grained and coarse-grained soils at saturations over the full range (0 ≤ S ≤ 1). Performance of the model is evaluated by comparison with experimental results from the literature.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant CMMI 1304119. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA

    Idil Deniz Akin

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geological Engineering Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    William J. Likos

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  1. Idil Deniz Akin
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  2. William J. Likos
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Correspondence to Idil Deniz Akin.

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Akin, I.D., Likos, W.J. Suction Stress of Clay Over a Wide Range of Saturation. Geotech Geol Eng 38, 283–296 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-019-01016-7

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