• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.111-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the overburden effect on soil-water characteristic curve and unsaturated permeability of unsaturated weathered soils. For this, unsaturated suction and permeability tests under various overburden stress were conducted respectively. Then, the coefficient of unsaturated permeability and moisture capacity of weathered soils were estimated and compared. All these results are presented in the paper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09b
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• pp.53-60
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• 2010

The natural soils are classified in saturated soils and unsaturated soils according to level of ground water but the research for only saturated soils has been conducted by this time. However, there are many proble.ms which are not solved by using the concept and principle of saturated soils on the natural soils. In fact, it is known that unsaturated soils represent the behavior characteristic unlike completely saturated soils because of the adhesion under the influence of negative pore water pressure, the high angle of friction and the low water permeability by the air entry. So it needs to conduct the various researches on insufficient unsaturated soils. In this paper, unsaturated triaxial compressive tests are conducted in order to do research on shear strength characteristic on sands and silty sands of Nakdong river. As a result of the tests, the cohesion is increased in non-linear type according to the change of the matric suction, but the angle of internal friction is not changed much.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.860-865
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• 2006

In order to predict the stability of slopes, it is important to evaluate shear strength of unsaturated soils. The triaxial tests were performed under $K_0$ conditions for unsaturated soils and the results were compared with those for saturated soils. In unsaturated soils, the secant modul and the shear strengths are larger than those of saturated soils because of matric suctions. However the shear strengths were not affected severely by stress conditions at consolidation.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.203-211
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• 2010

An experimental program of isotropic loading tests on a compacted kaolin using a conventional triaxial equipment modified for testing unsaturated soils was perform to investigate a loading collapse curve of unsaturated soils along wetting and drying paths. The test data are presented in terms of effective stress on a range of constant suction. The suction hardening behavior was observed for both wetted and dried samples. With the use of an appropriate effective stress parameter, the unique relationship for loading collapse curve for wetting and drying processes was obtained.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.133-142
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• 2000

Series of tests were carried out to study permeability characteristics of unsaturated soils. The weathered soils taken from Inju, Sungwhan, and Kuri, were selected to have different amount of fine grained soils in order to find a possible correlation between the unsaturated permeability behavior and fine grained soils contents. Measurements of permeability for unsaturated soils were performed with a newly developed apparatus, which modeled after Klute's apparatus(1965a). The apparatus was designed to measure volumetric water content and permeability by applying incremental suction pressure. Permeability and volumetric water content of unsaturated soils generally decreased as density of the soil increased. The relationship between volumetric water content and permeability was not related to the fine grained soils contents because the plots scattered widely. By comparing volumetric water content with permeability, empirical parameters A and B could be determined, which made to be possible to predict unsaturated permeability from soil-moisture characteristics.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.625-633
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• 2023

The volume changes associated with moisture or suction variation in expansive soils are of geotechnical and geoenvironmental design concern. These changes can impact the performance of infrastructure projects and lightweight structures. Assessment of unsaturated function for these materials leads to better interpretation and understanding, as well as providing accurate and economic design. In this study, expansive soils from different regions of Saudi Arabia were studied for their basic properties including gradation, plasticity and shrinkage, swelling, and consolidation characteristics. The unsaturated soil functions of saturated water content, air-entry values, and residual states were determined by conducting the tests for the entire soil water characteristic curves (SWCC) using different techniques. An attempt has been made to provide a prediction model for unsaturated properties based on the basic properties of these soils. Once the profile of SWCC has been predicted the time and cost for many tests can be saved. These predictions can be utilized in practice for the application of unsaturated soil mechanics on geotechnical and geoenvironmental projects.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.49-60
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• 2010

Unsaturated permeability function is an important factor in the design and analysis of various unsaturated soil structures. Generally the permeability characteristics decrease as the mat ric suction increases and the trend is similar to water retention characteristics of a soil. The permeability of unsaturated soils can be obtained directly by laboratory tests or indirectly by estimation methods from other soil properties. For unsaturated soils sampled from 7 areas in KOREA, SWCCs and unsaturated permeability functions were obtained by experimental tests. The unsaturated permeability results were also compared with the unsaturated permeability functions derived from the SWCCs theoretically. However, the current estimation models of unsaturated permeability function did not express the unsaturated permeability characteristics. Therefore, the FXK-M permeability function was modified to predict more accurate permeability functions for Korean weathered soils using a correction factor that can be calculated from the air-entry value of SWCC. The new estimation model resulted in good agreements for all tested soils.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.139-146
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• 2002

The characteristics and prediction model for the shear strength of unsaturated residual soils was studied. In order to investigate the influence of the net normal stress on the shear strength, unsaturated triaxial tests and SWCC tests were carried out varying the net normal stress, and the experimental data for unsaturated shear strength tests were compared with predicted shear strength envelopes using existing prediction models. It was shown that the soil - water characteristic curve and the shear strength of the unsaturated soil varied with the change of the net normal stress. Therefore, to achieve a truly descriptive shear strength envelope for unsaturated soils, tile effect of the normal stress on the contribution of matric suction to the shear strength has to be taken into consideration. In this paper, a modified prediction model for the unsaturated shear strength was proposed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1C
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• pp.53-63
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• 2010

Since the water retention curve is considered as a major parameter to evaluate the unsaturated ground or soils, overburden pressure and clay content on soils underneath ground surface have not been considered for estimating water retention characteristics. Therefore, a need exists that the effect of overburden pressure and clay content on water retention characteristics was assessed in typical weathered soils found in Korea. Soil-Water Characteristic Curve and the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity were estimated using water retention characteristics under the condition of different overburden pressure, clay content, and de-saturation path. Then, these effects are evaluated with the results of SWCC tests from the laboratory. In addition to that, the unsaturated moisture capacity and diffusivity of each case is discussed.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2022

A semi-analytical solution to responses of overconsolidated (OC) unsaturated soils surrounding an expanding spherical cavity under constant suction condition is presented. To capture the elastoplastic hydro-mechanical property of OC unsaturated soils, the unified hardening (UH) model for OC unsaturated soil is adopted in corporation with a soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and two suction yield surfaces. Taking the specific volume, radial stress, tangential stress and degree of saturation as the four basic unknowns, the problem investigated is formulated by solving a set of first-order ordinary differential equations with the help of an auxiliary variable and an iterative algorithm. The present solution is validated by comparing with available solution based on the modified Cam Clay (MCC) model. Parametric studies reveal that the hydraulic and mechanical responses of spherical cavity expanding in unsaturated soils are not only coupled, but also affected by suction and overconsolidation ratio (OCR) significantly. More importantly, whether hydraulic yield will occur or not depends only on the initial relationship between suction yield stress and suction. The presented solution can be used for calibration of some insitu tests in OC unsaturated soil.