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Unanswered questions in unsaturated soil mechanics

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Abstract

The last two to three decades have seen significant advances in the mechanics of unsaturated soils. It is now widely recognized that the fundamental principles in soil mechanics must cover both saturated and unsaturated soils. Nevertheless, there is still a great deal of uncertainties in the geotechnical community about how soil mechanics principles well-established for saturated soils can be extended to unsaturated soils. There is even wide skepticism about the necessity of such extension in engineering practice. This paper discusses some common pitfalls related to the fundamental principles that govern the volume change, shear strength and hydromechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils. It also attempts to address the issue of engineering relevance of unsaturated soil mechanics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, China

    DaiChao Sheng, Sheng Zhang & ZhiWu Yu

  2. The University of Newcastle, NSW, 2308, Australia

    DaiChao Sheng

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  1. DaiChao Sheng
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  2. Sheng Zhang
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Correspondence to Sheng Zhang.

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Sheng, D., Zhang, S. & Yu, Z. Unanswered questions in unsaturated soil mechanics. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 56, 1257–1272 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-013-5202-9

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