Abstract
All measurements of suction in soil water actually measure water energy (potential) rather than the state of pressure (tension) in the soil water. Matrix potential in unsaturated clays includes capillary and adsorption components. While the capillary component may contribute to the pore stresses, adsorption potential (or adsorption suction), which is due to interaction between the clay particles and the soil water, cannot be considered a stress. The present paper discusses the relevance of this to the shear strength of unsaturated clays. For example, in view of its energetic rather than stress nature, adsorption suction cannot contribute to the frictional component of shear strength, but only to the cohesional component. Published data is used to examine the influence of suction on mechanical behavior of compacted clays, and a relationship is observed between suction, cohesion and the activity of the clay particles.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Frydman, S. (2012). Shear Strength and Negative Water Potential in Unsaturated, Compacted Clays. In: Mancuso, C., Jommi, C., D’Onza, F. (eds) Unsaturated Soils: Research and Applications. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31343-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31343-1_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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