Skip to main content

The Need for Unsaturated Soil Mechanics: A Brief Review

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Recent Trends in Civil Engineering

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering ((LNCE,volume 105))

  • 722 Accesses

Abstract

Soils exhibit seasonal saturation and desiccation, often resulting in varying degrees of moisture content. In practice, soil is seldom fully saturated. When it is completely dry or wet, it behaves as a two-phase system. Otherwise, the moisture content within the interstices of soil vary, leading to partially saturated conditions. Unsaturated soil condition has significant influence on soil behaviour. This paper presents a brief review of the emergence of unsaturated soil mechanics and its applications.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Batali L, Andreea C (2016) Slope stability analysis using the unsaturated stress analysis. Case study. Proc Eng 143:284–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bishop AW (1959) The principle of effective stress. Teknisk ukeblad 39, 859–863

    Google Scholar 

  3. Blight GE (2013) Unsaturated soil mechanics in geotechnical practice. CRC Press

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bonder BH, Miguel MG (2010) Soil-water characteristic curves obtained through the wetting paths for a tropical soil profile. In: Fifth international conference on unsaturated soils, Barcelona. Taylor & Francis Group, London, vol 1, pp 441–446

    Google Scholar 

  5. Brooks R, Corey T (1964) Hydraulic properties of porous media. Hydrol Papers, Colorado State Univ 24:37

    Google Scholar 

  6. Chen P et al (2017) Effect of hydraulic hysteresis on stability of infinite slopes under steady infiltration. J Geotechn Geoenviron Eng 143(9):04017041

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ching RK et al (1984) Increase in factor of safety due to soil suction for two Hong Kong slopes. Proc 4th Int Symp Landslides 617–623

    Google Scholar 

  8. Cho SE (2016) Stability analysis of unsaturated soil slopes considering water-air flow caused by rainfall infiltration. Eng Geol 211:184–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Fredlund DG (2000a) Historical developments and milestones in unsaturated soil mechanics. In: Proceedings of the 1st Asian conference on unsaturated soils (UNSAT-ASIA 2000), Singapore, pp 18–19

    Google Scholar 

  10. Fredlund DG (2000) The 1999 RM Hardy lecture: the implementation of unsaturated soil mechanics into geotechnical engineering. Can Geotech J 37(5):963–986

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Fredlund DG, Xing A (1994) Equations for the soil-water characteristic curve. Can Geotech J 31(4):521–532

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Fredlund DG, Rahardjo H (1993) Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils. Wiley

    Google Scholar 

  13. Fredlund DG, Houston SL (2009) Protocol for the assessment of unsaturated soil properties in geotechnical engineering practice. Can Geotech J 46(6):694–707

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Gardner WR (1958) Some steady-state solutions of the unsaturated moisture flow equation with application to evaporation from a water table. Soil Sci 85(4):228–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Garven EA, Vanapalli SK (2006) Evaluation of empirical procedures for predicting the shear strength of unsaturated soils. Unsaturated Soils 2006:2570–2592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Gens A et al (2006) On constitutive modelling of unsaturated soils. Acta Geotechnica 1(3):137

    Google Scholar 

  17. Guan GS et al (2009) Shear strength equations for unsaturated soil under drying and wetting. J Geotechn Geoenviron Eng 136(4):594–606

    Google Scholar 

  18. Ip SCY et al (2020) Three-dimensional slope stability analysis incorporating unsaturated soil properties in Singapore. Georisk: Assess Manag Risk Eng Syst Geohazards 1–15

    Google Scholar 

  19. Likos WJ et al (2019) Fundamental challenges in unsaturated soil mechanics. In: Geotechnical fundamentals for addressing new world challenges. Springer, Cham, pp 209–236

    Google Scholar 

  20. Malaya C, Sreedeep S (2012) Critical review on the parameters influencing soil-water characteristic curve. J Irrig Drainage Eng 138(1):55–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Pande GN, Pietruszczak S (2015) On unsaturated soil mechanics–personal views on current research. Stud Geotechn Mech 37(3):73–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Rahardjo H et al (2017) Numerical analyses for assessment of geobarrier system performance. PanAm Unsaturated Soils 2017:132–148

    Google Scholar 

  23. Rahardjo H et al (2019) Role of unsaturated soil mechanics in geotechnical engineering. Int J Geo-Eng 10(1):8

    Google Scholar 

  24. Rao BH, Singh DN (2009) Establishing soil-water characteristic curve of a fine-grained soil from electrical measurements. J Geotechn Geoenviron Eng 136(5):751–754

    Google Scholar 

  25. Rostami A et al (2013) Pore network investigation on hysteresis phenomena and influence of stress state on the SWRC. Int J Geomech 15(5):04014072

    Google Scholar 

  26. Sheng D (2011) Review of fundamental principles in modelling unsaturated soil behaviour. Comput Geotech 38(6):757–776

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. van Genuchten MTh (1980) A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils 1. Soil Sci Soc Am J 44(5):892–898

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Vanapalli SK (2009) Shear strength of unsaturated soils and its applications in geotechnical engineering practice. In: Keynote Address. Proceeding of 4th Asia-Pacific Conferennce on Unsaturated Soils. New Castle, Australia, pp 579–598

    Google Scholar 

  29. Xie W et al (2020) Influence of the features of the unsaturated zone on the air injection method in a slope. Proc Inst Civil Eng-Geotechn Eng 173(2):115–124

    Google Scholar 

  30. Yang H et al (2004) Factors affecting drying and wetting soil-water characteristic curves of sandy soils. Can Geotechn J 41(5):908–920

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to K. Ujwala Shenoy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Ujwala Shenoy, K., Babu Narayan, K.S., Sunil, B.M. (2021). The Need for Unsaturated Soil Mechanics: A Brief Review. In: Das, B.B., Nanukuttan, S.V., Patnaik, A.K., Panandikar, N.S. (eds) Recent Trends in Civil Engineering. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 105. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8293-6_21

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8293-6_21

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-8292-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-8293-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics