• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2004.03b
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• pp.334-341
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• 2004

The coefficient of permeability is one of the most important properties in unsaturated soils. The permeability varies with change in the water content as the soil water characteristic curve(SWCC) does. Thus the permeability curve of unsaturated soils has the similar shape with the soil-water characteristic curve(SWCC). Therefore, the methodologies have been studied to simply predict the unsaturated permeability from the SWCC. In this study, the experimental tests of SWCC and permeability were carried out for domestic weathered granite soils. The SWCC test results were fitted to Fredlund and Xing's SWCC equation and then it was found that there are some relationships between the parameters of SWCC equation and the basic soil properties. Accordingly we used an ANN(artificial neural network) model to obtain the SWCC parameters from the basic soil properties. Finally, the coefficients of permeability were predicted from these results by a prediction model.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.29 no.A
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• pp.145-153
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• 2009

In this study, to determine characteristics of compaction and the soil water characteristic curve(SWCC) in decomposed granitic soils, compaction tests and SWCC tests were carried out for samples having various contents of coefficient of uniform($c_u$), By compacting their samples with standard Proctor density test, the effects of binder contents on maximum dry density and optimum moisture content were investigated and compared. Samples compacted with the maximum dry density and the optimum moisture content were tested by means of the SWCC, to determine their SWCC parameters, such as Brooks & Corey(${\lambda}$, ${\Psi}_b$), Van Genuchten (${\alpha}$, n, m), Fredlund & Xing(a, n, m).

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.39-48
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• 2007

The soil-water characteristic curve(SWCC) is a useful tool in the prediction of the engineering behavior of unsaturated soils. Several equations are available in the literature to mathematically represent the experimental behavior of the SWCC. Some equations are based on the assumption that the shape of curve is dependent upon pore-size distribution. Other equations assume that SWCC can be estimated from the grain size distribution and the physical properties of soils. This study evaluated the suitability of using two different SWCC equations for defining the relationship between water content and matric suction. Various parameters that influence the SWCC behavior are also briefly discussed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.2369-2379
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• 2013

The Soil-Water Characteristics Curve (SWCC) is affected by the initial density of soil under unsaturated condition. Also, the characteristic of hydraulic conductivity is changed by the initial density of soil. To study the effect of initial density of unsaturated soil, SWCC and the Hydraulic Conductivity Function (HCF) of Jumoonjin sand with various relative densities, 40%, 60% and 75% were measured in both drying and wetting processes. As the results of SWCC estimated by van Genuchten (1980) model, the parameter related to Air Entry Value(AEV), ${\alpha}$ in the wetting process is larger than that in drying process, but the parameters related to the SWCC slope, n and the residual water content, m are larger than those in wetting process. The AEV is increased or Water Entry Value (WEV) is decreased with increasing the relative density of sand. The AEV is larger than the WEV at the same relative density of sand. As the results of HCF estimated by van Genuchten (1980) model which is one of the parameter estimation methods, the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity maintained at a saturated one in the low level of matric suctions and then suddenly decreased just before the AEV or the WEV. The saturated hydraulic conductivity in drying process is larger than that in wetting process. The saturated hydraulic conductivity is decreased with increasing the relative density of sand in both drying and wetting processes. Also, the hysteresis in unsaturated HCFs between drying and wetting process was occurred like the hysteresis in SWCCs. According to the test results, the AEV on SWCC is decreased and the saturated hydraulic conductivity is increased with increasing the initial density. It means that SWCC and HCF are affected by the initial density in the unsaturated soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.53-63
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• 2008

The aim of this study was to validate the suitability of an digital image analysis (DIA) method to measure the degree of saturation in the unsaturated conditions. This study was carried out on the Joo-Mun-Jin standard sand. A one-dimensional sand column test was used in the constant water level condition to get the correlation equation between the color number ($C_n$) and the measured degree of saturation (5). In addition, the hanging wale. column technique to determine the soil-water charactenstic curve (SWCC) was performed in a Buchner funnel. The average degree of saturation ($S_{ave}$) in the SWCC could be obtained by substituting average color number at each suction head value with the $C_n\;-\;S$ correlation equation. Comparisons were made between the measured results by the hanging water column test and those obtained from DIA method. Results showed that the DIA method tested here provided fairly good saturation distribution values in the drying and wetting processes.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.336-344
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• 2017

The soil water characteristics curve (SWCC) represents the relation between soil water potential and soil water content. The shape and range of SWCC according to the relation could vary depending on soil characteristics. The objective of the study was to estimate SWCC depending on soil types and layers and to analyze the trend among them. To accomplish this goal, the unsaturated three soils were considered: silty clay loam, loam, and sandy loam soils. Weighable lysimeters were used for exactly measuring soil water content and soil water potential. Two fitting models, van Genuchten and Campbell, were applied. Two models entirely fitted well the measured SWCC, indicating low RMSE and high $R^2$ values. However, the large difference between the measured and the estimated was found at the 30 cm layer of the silty clay loam soil, and the gap was wider as soil water potential increased. In addition, the non-linear decrease of soil water content according to the increase of soil water potential tended to be more distinct in the sandy loam soil and at the 10 cm layer than in the silty clay loam soil and at the lower layers. These might be seen due to the various factors such as not only pore size distribution, but also cracks by high clay content and plow pan layers by compaction. This study clearly showed difficulty in the estimation of SWCC by such kind of factors.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.13-20
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• 2009

Generally, soil is regarded as fully saturated in Geotechnical Engineering and under ground structure design. Because it is in convenience and safety. But soils treated in field are almost in unsaturated state. Design in unsaturated state is difficult comparing with saturated soil. In unsaturated soil mechanics, parameters are usually not constant unlike saturated soil mechanics. Additionally lab or field tests in unsaturated soil mechanics are required more cost, time and theoretical difficulty. One of essential requisites for examination about unsaturated soil is Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC). It show the relation between soil suction and soil water content. Through many studies in and out of country, computation and testing methods for SWCC were introduced. But in this the country, most soil is granite soil that is widely spread in Korea. And the studies for granite soil's SWCC are not enough yet. In this paper, through studying for existing proposal methods about computation SWCC and collection data for domestic granite soils, It was determined the suitable method for domestic granite soils, and computed each granite soil's SWCC. The purpose of this paper is establishing database for domestic granite soil's SWCC as each region to convenience for applying to actual affairs. For this, studying about existing proposal methods for SWCC was performed and a computer program Soil-Vision is used. Furthermore for verification theoretical and testing methods were also performed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.5-13
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• 2019

The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) plays an important role in determining the soil suction parameters required to predict the seepage or shear behaviors of unsaturated soils. In addition, path dependency of the SWCC affects the mechanical and hydrologic behaviors. In general, there is a disadvantage that it takes a long time to measure both the drying and wetting paths of the SWCC by a stepwise pressurization method. Thus, the continuous pressurization method as an improved testing method for the SWCC was suggested, and the testing time for two paths of the SWCC was significantly shorter than the conventional methods. For the applicability evaluation of this method, the results of the SWCC obtained by the stepwise pressurization method and the evaporation method in this study were compared to the result obtained from this method. As a result, it was found that the difference among three methods was negligible, and the testing time of the continuous pressurization method was greatly decreased. Therefore, it can be said that it is possible to quickly and accurately measure the SWCC under various conditions by the continuous pressurization method.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.47-58
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• 2014

To investigate the unsaturated characteristics of the tailings obtained from the waste dump at Imgi mine, matric suction and volumetric water content were measured in both drying and wetting processes using Automated Soil-Water Characteristics Curve Apparatus. Based on the measured result, Soil Water Characteristic Curves (SWCC) were estimated by van Genuchten model. According to the unsaturated soil classification method, the tailings of the waste dump correspond to clayey sand. As a result of Suction Stress Characteristic Curve (SSCC) by Lu and Likos model, SSCC has a shape of S which is similar to SWCC. The hysteresis phenomenon occurred in SSCCs, which means the suction stress of drying path is larger than that of wetting path in the same effective degree of saturation. The effective stress of unsaturated soil is equal to that of saturated soil when matric suction is less than Air Entry Value (AEV). However, the effective stress of unsaturated soil is larger than that of saturated soil when matic suction is more than AEV. Meanwhile, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity by van Genuchten model decreased with increasing matric suction, and the hydraulic conductivity of drying path is larger than that of wetting path.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.17-26
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• 2005

Soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) is a unique characteristic that should be considered In the analysis of unsaturated soil and prediction of unsaturated properties. However, the volume change of soil specimens that happens in the existing apparatus affects the SWCC, Therefore, In this study, we intended to obtain more appropriate SWCC by measuring the change In the volume of the specimen in the SWCC tests. The measured change of void ratio indicates that the saturation step prior to the test changes the original structure of the soil specimen. Thus we carried out the test far the same specimen omitting the saturation step prior to the test. The change of void ratio by this test procedure is relatively small.