Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Hydromechanical modeling of unsaturated soils considering compaction effects on soil physical and hydraulic properties

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Acta Geotechnica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study presents a methodology that includes hydraulic and mechanical constitutive relationships for modeling the complex volumetric behavior of unsaturated soils. The mechanical relationships are based on the generalized effective stress concept, and the hydraulic relationships adopt soil water retention curves dependent on soil deformation. After the formulation and the introduction of the governing equations, a study case based on the results of suction-controlled oedometric tests is presented, aiming for a better understanding of the effect of compaction on unsaturated soils. The oedometric compression curves of a first set of laboratory tests are reinterpreted in terms of the generalized effective stress concept to obtain the required model parameters. Then, numerical simulations are performed to analyze the soil susceptibility to large volumetric strains triggered by a combined effect of loading and wetting (collapse). The numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed approach can model the collapse potential of soils with different compaction levels using a single set of parameters.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Abelev YM (1948) The essentials of designing and building on microporous soils. Stroltel’naya Promyshelmast 10

  2. Alan JL, Robert TS (1988) Determination of collapse potential of soils. Geotech Test J 11(3):173–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Alonso EE, Gens A, Josa A (1990) A constitutive model for partially saturated soils. Geotechnique 40(3):405–430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Alonso EE, Pereira JM, Vaunat J, Olivella S (2010) A microstructurally based effective stress for unsaturated soils. Geotechnique 60(12):913–925. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.8.P.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Assouline S (2006) Modeling the relationship between soil bulk density and the water retention curve. Vadose Zo J 5(2):554–563. https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2005.0083

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Assouline S, Tavares-Filho J, Tessier D (1997) Effect of compaction on soil physical and hydraulic properties: experimental results and modeling. Soil Sci Soc Am J 61:390–398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Ayeldeen M, Negm A, El-Sawwaf M, Kitazume M (2017) Enhancing mechanical behaviors of collapsible soil using two biopolymers. J Rock Mech Geotech Eng 9(2):329–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.11.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bishop AW (1959) The principle of effective stress. Tek Ukebl 106(39):859–863

    Google Scholar 

  9. Borja RI (2004) Cam-Clay plasticity. Part V: a mathematical framework for three-phase deformation and strain localization analyses of partially saturated porous media. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 193(48–51):5301–5338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cma.2003.12.067

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Brooks R, Corey A (1964) Hydraulic properties of porous media. Colorado State University, Fort Collins

    Google Scholar 

  11. Cavalcante ALB, Mascarenhas PVS (2021) Efficient approach in modeling the shear strength of unsaturated soil using soil water retention curve. Acta Geotech 16(10):3177–3186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01144-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Chao Chang C, Hui Cheng D, Ying Qiao X (2019) Improving estimation of pore size distribution to predict the soil water retention curve from its particle size distribution. Geoderma 340:206–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.01.011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Cui YJ, Nguyen XP, Tang AM, Li XL (2013) An insight into the unloading/reloading loops on the compression curve of natural stiff clays. Appl Clay Sci 83–84:343–348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2013.08.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Cunningham MR, Ridley AM, Dineen K, Burland JB (2003) The mechanical behaviour of a reconstituted unsaturated silty clay. Géotechnique 53(2):183–194. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.53.2.183.37266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Duan X, Zeng L, Sun X (2019) Generalized stress framework for unsaturated soil: demonstration and discussion. Acta Geotech 14:1459–1481

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Escario V, Juca J (1989) Strength and deformation of partly saturated soils. In: Proceedings of the 12th conference on soil mechanics and foundation engineering (ICSMFE), vol 1, pp 43–46

  17. Ferreira TR, Pires LF, Auler AC, Brinatti AM, Ogunwole JO (2019) Water retention curve to analyze soil structure changes due to liming. An Acad Bras Cienc 91(3):1–12. https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765201920180528

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Fredlund D, Morgenstern N (1977) Stress state variables and unsaturated soils. J Geotech Eng Div ASCE 103:447–466

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Geertsma J (1956) The effect of fluid pressure decline on volume changes of porous rocks

  22. Gens A (2010) Soil-environment interactions in geotechnical engineering. Geotechnique 60(1):3–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Habibbeygi F, Nikraz H (2018) The effect of unloading and reloading on the compression behaviour of reconstituted clays. Int J Geomate 15(51):53–59. https://doi.org/10.21660/2018.51.52643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Han Z, Vanapalli S, Wang X, Zhang J (2019) Modelling virgin compression line of compacted unsaturated soils. Acta Geotech 14:1991–2006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Jennings JE, Burland JB (1962) Limitations to the use of effective stresses in partly saturated soils. Geotechnique 12(2):125–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Jennings JE, Knight K (1975) A guide to construction on or with materials exhibiting additional settlement due to collapse of grain structure. In: 6th regional conference for africa on soil mechanics and foundation engineering, pp 99–105

  28. Johnson PJ, Zyvoloski GA, Stauffer PH (2019) Impact of a porosity-dependent retention function on simulations of porous flow. Transp Porous Media 127(1):211–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-018-1188-x

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  29. Jommi C (2000) Remarks on the constitutive modelling of unsaturated soils. Experimental evidence and theoretical approaches in unsaturated soils. CRC Press, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  30. Khalili N, Geiser F, Blight GE (2004) Effective stress in unsaturated soils, a review with new evidence. Int J Geomech 4(2):115–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Khalili N, Habte MA, Zargarbashi S (2008) A fully coupled flow deformation model for cyclic analysis of unsaturated soils including hydraulic and mechanical hysteresis. Comput Geotech 35(6):872–889

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Khalili N, Khabbaz MH (1998) A unique relationship for chi for the determination of the shear strength of unsaturated soils. Geotechnique 48(5):681–687

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Knight K (1963) The origin and occurrence of collapsible soils. In: Third regional conference for africa on soil mechanics and foundation engineering, pp 127–130

  34. Laloui L, Nuth M (2009) On the use of the generalised effective stress in the constitutive modelling of unsaturated soils. Comput Geotech 36(1–2):20–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Li P, Vanapalli S, Li T (2016) Review of collapse triggering mechanism of collapsible soils due to wetting. J Rock Mech Geotech Eng 8(2):256–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Lollo JA (1998) Geotechnical characterization of the urban expansion area of Ilha Solteira (SP) using relief shapes [In Portuguese]. In: Simpósio Brasileiro de Cartografia Geotécnica

  37. Lollo JA, Morais AS (1993) Characterization of potentially collapsible soils from recognition tests [In Portuguese]. In: Congresso Brasileiro de Engenharia Agrícola, pp 63–71

  38. Matyas EL, Radhakrishna HS (1968) Volume change characteristics of partially saturated soils. Geotechnique 18(4):432–448. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1968.18.4.432

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. McCartney JS, Behbehani F (2021) Hydromechanical behavior of unsaturated soils: interpretation of compression curves in terms of effective stress. Soils Rocks 44(3):1–19. https://doi.org/10.28927/SR.2021.065721

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Mijares R, Khire M (2010) Soil water characteristic curves of compacted clay subjected to multiple wetting and drying cycles. Advances in analysis, modeling and design. ASCE, Reston, pp 400–409

    Google Scholar 

  41. Mualem Y, Assouline S (1989) Modeling soil seal as a nonuniform layer. Water Resour Res 25(10):2101–2108. https://doi.org/10.1029/WR025i010p02101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Ngo-Cong D et al (2021) A modeling framework to quantify the effects of compaction on soil water retention and infiltration. Soil Sci Soc Am J 85(6):1931–1945. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Olivella S, Gens J, Alonso E (1996) Numerical formulation for a simulator (CODE-BRIGHT) for the coupled analysis of saline media. Eng Comput 13(7):87–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Opukumo AW, Davie CT, Glendinning S, Oborie E (2022) A review of the identification methods and types of collapsible soils. J Eng Appl Sci 69(1):1–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Quevedo RJ (2012) Three-dimensional analysis of hydromechanical problems in partially saturated soils [In Portuguese]. Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro

  46. Quevedo R, Roehl D, Romanel C (2023) Development, application and comparison of coupling techniques for modeling the hydromechanical behavior of unsaturated soils. Adv Water Resour 182:104566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2023.104566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Rodrigues RA (2007) Modeling of the collapse deformations due to rise of groundwater table [In Portuguese]. São Paulo State University

  48. Rodrigues R (2003) Influence of domestic sewage as saturation fluid on sandy soil collapse [In Portuguese]. Universidade Estadual Paulista

  49. Rodrigues RA, Prado Soares FV, Sanchez M (2021) Settlement of footings on compacted and natural collapsible soils upon loading and soaking. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 147(4):04021010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)gt.1943-5606.0002479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Romero E, Della Vecchia G, Jommi C (2011) An insight into the water retention properties of compacted clayey soils. Geotechnique 61(4):313–328. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.2011.61.4.313

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Romero E, Gens A, Lloret A (1999) Water permeability, water retention and microstructure of unsaturated compacted Boom clay. Eng Geol 54(1–2):117–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0013-7952(99)00067-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Rotisciani GM, Desideri A, Amorosi A (2021) Unsaturated structured soils: constitutive modelling and stability analyses. Acta Geotech 16(11):3355–3380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01313-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Salager S, Nuth M, Ferrari A, Laloui L (2013) Investigation into water retention behaviour of deformable soils. Can Geotech J 50(2):200–208. https://doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2011-0409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Salager S, El Youssoufi MS, Saix C (2010) Definition and experimental determination of a soil-water retention surface. Can Geotech J 47(6):609–622. https://doi.org/10.1139/T09-123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Sheng D, Sloan SW, Gens A, Smith DW (2003) Finite element formulation and algorithms for unsaturated soils. Part I: theory. Int J Numer Anal Meth Geomech 27:745–765. https://doi.org/10.1002/nag.295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Sheng D, Sloan SW, Gens A, Smith DW (2003) Finite element formulation and algorithms for unsaturated soils. Part I: theory. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 27(9):745–765

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Silveira I (2019) Collapsibility study as a function of the compaction conditions of an unsaturated sandy soil [In Portuguese]. São Paulo State University

  58. Simms PH, Yanful EK (2002) Predicting soil-water characteristic curves of compacted plastic soils from measured pore-size distributions. Geotechnique 52(4):269–278. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.2002.52.4.269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  59. Soares F (2018) Collapsible settlement prediction of shallow foundations on natural and compacted soil [In Portuguese]. São Paulo State University

  60. Song X, Borja RI (2014) Finite deformation and fluid flow in unsaturated soils with random heterogeneity. Vadose Zone J 13(5):1–11. https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2013.07.0131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Song X, Borja R (2014) Mathematical framework for unsaturated flow in the finite deformation range. Int J Numer Methods Eng 97:658–682

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  62. Souza A (1993) Use of shallow foundations in the collapsible soil from Ilha Solteira-SP [In Portuguese]. University of São Paulo

  63. Srivastava R, Yeh T (1991) Analytical solutions for one-dimensional, transient infiltration toward the water table in homogeneous and layered soils. Water Resour Res 27:753–762

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Stange CF, Horn R (2005) Modeling the soil water retention curve for conditions of variable porosity. Vadose Zo J 4(3):602–613. https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2004.0150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Sun DA, Matsuoka H, Yao YP, Ichihara W (2000) An elasto-plastic model for unsaturated soil in three-dimensional stresses. Soils Found 40(3):17–28. https://doi.org/10.3208/sandf.40.3_17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Tarantino A (2009) A water retention model for deformable soils. Geotechnique 59(9):751–762. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.7.00118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Tian Z, Gao W, Kool D, Ren T, Horton R, Heitman JL (2018) Approaches for estimating soil water retention curves at various bulk densities with the extended van genuchten model. Water Resour Res 54(8):5584–5601. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022871

    Article  Google Scholar 

  68. Vanapalli SK, Fredlund DG, Pufahl DE (1999) The influence of soil structure and stress history on the soil-water characteristics of a compacted till. Geotechnique 49(2):143–159. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1999.49.2.143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  69. Vanapalli SK, Fredlund DG, Pufahl DE, Clifton AW (1996) Model for the prediction of shear strength with respect to soil suction. Can Geotech J 33(3):379–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  70. Vargas M (1978) Introduction to soil mechanics [In Portuguese], 2nd edn. Mc Graw-Hill do Brasil, São Paulo

    Google Scholar 

  71. Verruijt A (1969) Elastic storage of aquifers. Flow through porous media. Press Inc., New York, pp 331–376

    Google Scholar 

  72. Vilar OM, Rodrigues RA (2015) Revisiting classical methods to identify collapsible soils. Soils Rocks, São Paulo 38(3):265–278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  73. Wheeler SJ, Gallipoli D, Karstunen M (2002) Comments on use of the Barcelona basic model for unsaturated soils. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 26(15):1561–1571. https://doi.org/10.1002/nag.259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  74. Wheeler SJ, Sivakumar V (1995) An elasto-plastic critical state framework for unsaturated soil. Geotechnique 45(1):35–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  75. Xu YF (2004) Fractal approach to unsaturated shear strength. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 130(3):264–273. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1090-0241(2004)130:3(264)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  76. Zhai Q et al (2023) Prediction of the soil-water characteristic curves for the fine-grained soils with different initial void ratios. Acta Geotech 18:5359–5368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  77. Zhang F, Wilson G, Fredlund D (2018) Permeability function for oil sands tailings undergoing volume change during drying. Can Geotech J 55(2):191–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Supporting Research in the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) Grant E-26/211.766/2021, Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) Grants 420074/2021-0 and 407388/2022-2, the Scientific Research Institute (Instituto de Investigación Científica, IDIC) from the University of Lima, and the Tecgraf Institute from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute Tecgraf at PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    R. Quevedo & D. Roehl

  2. Research Group in Numerical and Computational Methods, Graphic and Scientific Computing, Scientific Research Institute, Lima University, Lima, Peru

    M. Lopez

  3. Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    D. Roehl

Authors
  1. R. Quevedo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Lopez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. D. Roehl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Quevedo.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Quevedo, R., Lopez, M. & Roehl, D. Hydromechanical modeling of unsaturated soils considering compaction effects on soil physical and hydraulic properties. Acta Geotech. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-024-02305-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-024-02305-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation