Compressibility characteristics of unsaturated soil

• Main Author: Soh, Jasmine Xiang Qin.
• Other Authors: Leong Eng Choon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Civil engineering::Geotechnical
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40178
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

For saturated soil, Terzaghi’s theory of consolidation can be used in performing a settlement analysis. But in a number of geotechnical situations, unsaturated soils are involved and compressibility behaviour of unsaturated soils is seldom determined in the normal course of site investigation. This study investigates the compression characteristics of unsaturated silty sand using the double oedometer test. A group of consolidation curves was obtained for the soil at different initial matric suctions. For every set of initial matric suction, two sets of compression curves were obtained. One set of the soils was wetted while the other set was dry. The results showed that the compressibility of the soils at different intial matric suctions are all similar when wetted. The compressibility of the dry soils decreases as intial matric suction increases.