A Study on the Relationship Between Matric Suction and the Void Ratio and Moisture Content of a Compacted Unsaturated Soil

Abstract

The volumetric behaviour of compacted unsaturated soils is particularly complex due to the co-existence of three different phases: solid, liquid and air. Matric suction has been perceived as a significant influence on the volumetric behaviour of unsaturated soils and has been used as one of the constitutive variables for most the constitutive models of unsaturated soils in the literature. However, suction-controlled works are complex in practice since they generally require special test procedures and advanced equipment, and usually are very time-consuming. Thus, some researchers have tried to seek alternative frameworks that use the traditional choice of state variables to simulate the behaviour of unsaturated soils. Recently, Kodikara [1] proposed the MPK framework to interpret the behaviour of compacted unsaturated soil in the void ratio (e) – net stress (p) – moisture ratio (ew ) space. The distinct advantage of the model is that it is based on traditional constant moisture content compaction testing which is more common and simple than constant suction loading. The MPK framework has been shown to be capable of presenting the volumetric behaviour of compacted unsaturated soils. However, this framework is expected to use not only for compacted soil but for the behaviour of unsaturated soil in general. The incorporation of soil suction within the MPK framework can be helpful for creating a correlation with previous models which used matric suction as a constitutive variable. This paper presents the development of LWSBS for one clayey soil in Hungary within the MPK framework and then suction is incorporated, which is related to void ratio and moisture ratio through SWCC.