• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.107-116
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• 2022

The steady state of unsaturated soil takes a long time to achieve. The soil seepage behaviours and hydraulic properties depend highly on the wetting/drying rate. It is observed that the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is dependent on the wetting/drying rate, which is known as the dynamic effect. The dynamic effect apparently influences the scanning curves and will substantially affect the seepage behavior. However, the previous models commonly ignore the dynamic effect and cannot quantitatively describe the hysteresis scanning loops under dynamic conditions. In this study, a dynamic hysteresis model for SWCC is proposed considering the dynamic change of contact angle and the moving of the contact line. The drying contact angle under dynamic condition is smaller than that under static condition, while the wetting contact angle under dynamic condition is larger than that under static condition. The dynamic contact angle is expressed as a function of the saturation rate according to the Laplace equation. The model is given by a differential equation, in which the slope of the scanning curve is related to the slope of the boundary curve by means of contact angle. Empirical models can simulate the boundary curves. Given the two boundary curves, the scanning curve can be well predicted. In this model, only two parameters are introduced to describe the dynamic effect. They can be easily obtained from the experiment, which facilitates the calibration of the model. The proposed model is verified by the experimental data recorded in the literature and is proved to be more convenient and effective.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.523-535
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• 2008

A simulated rainfall system was built, and the unsaturated characteristics were examined by execution of simulated rainfall system test and soil water characteristic curve cell test(SWCC Cell Test) under the various rainfall and slope conditions. With the results, the applicability of infiltration behavior under rainfall and soil water characteristic curve models to the unsaturated weathered granite soil was examined. At the results of comparison the volumetric water content and matric suction measured in the wetting process(under rainfall) with those in the drying process(leaving as it was) of the simulated rainfall system, the volumetric water content showed a difference of $2{\sim}5%$ and matric suction of about $3{\sim}10\;kPa$, indicating the occurrence of hysteresis. In addition, the difference was relatively larger in matric suction than in the volumetric water content, and this tells that the hysteresis behavior is larger in matric suction. When the soil water characteristic curve derived from measurements in simulated rainfall system test were compared with those from the soil water characteristic curve cell test, both methods produced soil water characteristic curves close each other in the wetting process and the drying process, but in both, there was a difference between results obtained from in the wetting process and those from in the drying process. Thus, when soil water characteristic curves are rationally applied to the design and stability analysis considering of the properties of unsaturated soil, it is considered desirable to apply the soil water characteristic curve of the wetting process to the wetting process, and that of the drying process to the drying process.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.727-740
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• 2018

The media in the undersaturated zone is defined as the uppermost layer of the water table at which the groundwater is unsaturated or saturated discontinuously. The properties of the unsaturated zone can affect the reduction of contaminants that flow from the lower part of soil to the water table. In recent, there have been problems in evaluating groundwater contaminations vulnerability because weighted value for permeability is given, regardless of anisotropy and heterogeneity in the unsaturated media. Geological media have various ranges of permeability. When applying the weighted value, representative of permeability for grain sizes standardized, to construction of contamination vulnerability, it will produce more exaggerated result than the case that considers unsaturated geological properties. In this study, we performed laboratory column tests considering two sets of the unsaturated layers in order to investigate the permeability in anisotropic unsaturated zone with anisotropy. On the basis of the tests, average permeability coefficients were calculated considering the properties of unsaturated media obtained from drill cores in the field. The final contamination vulnerability map constructed shows that the contamination vulnerability map applying the properties of geological media of the unsaturated zone coincides much better with the results measured in the field, compared to the case of contamination vulnerability considering the weighted value in the unsaturated zone.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.1076-1082
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• 2006

This study measured the change of media properties using Time domain Reflectometry (TDR) and Tensionmeter (TM) to measure volumetric water content of soil affecting in land subsidence and pollutant diffusion under saturation/unsaturated condition by water-level fluctuations. Also, actual water content compared their changes aspect by dry oven test for quantitative determinations of these measured values. In the case of TM, initial unsaturated condition confirmed that range in dimension of each other different according to their establishment depth, but measured values of TM can know that is shown measured value in almost similar measuring range under drain condition after the first injection. Also, the results of TDR showed that can measure enough change of volumetric water content in saturation/unsaturated condition by water-level fluctuations. Therefore, we are judged that TDR measurement equipment is very effective to measure the variations of volumetric water content and water-level being caused in groundwater level fluctuations.

• 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.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.3C
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• pp.113-120
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• 2012

An actual slope failure was analyzed in residual soils at Jinju. Due to rainfall infiltration, the safety factor decreases in the unsaturated layers, since the effective stress and shear strength decrease. In this study, the effective stress is based on suction stress using soil water retention curve. Unsaturated properties were evaluated on soil water retention curve, hydraulic conductivity and shear strength with samples from the site. After infiltration analysis of unsaturated flow under the actual rainfall, the distribution of pore water pressure could be calculated in the slope layers. In the stress field of finite elements, an elastic analysis calculated total stress distribution in the layers and also shear stresses on the slip surface using elastic model. On the slip surface, suction stress and effective stress evaluated the shear strength. As a result, the factor of safety was calculated due to rainfall, which could simulate the actual slope failure. In particular, it was found that the suction stress increases and both the effective stress and the shear strength decrease simultaneously on the slip surface.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.5-22
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• 2017

The procedure that combines the result of infiltration analysis into stability analysis based on the limit equilibrium method is widely used to evaluate the impact of rainfall infiltration on slope stability. Accurate prediction of rainfall infiltration is essential to the prediction of landslides caused by rainfall, requires to obtain accurate unsaturated hydraulic properties of the soil. Among the unsaturated hydraulic characteristics of the soil, the importance of the soil-water characteristic curve describing the retained water characteristics of the soil is relatively well known and the measurement by test method to obtain the SWCC is gradually increasing. However, it takes a lot of time and expenses to experimentally measure the unsaturated conductivity characteristics of the soil. Therefore, it is common practice to estimate the hydraulic conductivity function from the SWCC. Although it is widely known that the SWCC has a great influence on rainfall infiltration, studies on the effect of the hydraulic conductivity function estimated from the SWCC on rainfall infiltration are very limited. In this study, we explained how the estimation model of the hydraulic conductivity function affects rainfall infiltration and slope stability analysis. To this end, one-dimensional infiltration analysis and slope stability analysis were conducted by using the data on the SWCC of weathered granite soil widely distributed in Korea. The applicability of each estimation model is discussed through review of the analysis results.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.207-214
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• 2003

To analyze soil properties with depth in rice field, we compared resistivity distributions obtained from soil analysis with one dimensional inversion of small loop electromagnetic (EM) data. Although it didn't show consistency exactly between the two resistivity distributions, low resistivity zones in soil analysis, appeared to agree with low resistivity zones in EM result. Therefore, small loop EM method can be applied to obtain rapidly the soil properties such as salt accumulation in a rice field. If research on soil property and EM responses of unsaturated zone would be conducted consistently, small loop EM method can be used effectively to detect salt accumulated zone in agricultural area.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2024

In current slope stability analysis techniques, slope stability is evaluated based on the saturated-soil theory. However, soil-water characteristics change frequently depending on the climate. Therefore, because the saturated soil theory has limitations, the application of the unsaturated soil theory is necessary for slope stability. It is also important to evaluate the engineering properties of unsaturated soil because the capillary absorption capacity is reduced due to heavy rain, thereby causing a reduction in slope stability. In this study, soil-water characteristic tests were performed using four samples with different fine contents (0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%) using granite-weathered soil in domestic production areas. In particular, to consider the previously conducted drying process as well as the evaluation of stability due to heavy rain on the actual slope, a wetting process was conducted, in which the water content was increased. In addition, the van Genuchten (1980) model, which is the most consistent theoretical equation for the experiment, was used with various theoretical equations, and the parameters were analyzed according to the fine content of the granite-weathered soil for the drying and wetting processes.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.415-423
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• 2010

Pore network models are useful tools to investigate soil pore geometry. These models provide quantitative information of pore geometry from 3D images. This study presents a pore network model to quantify pore structure and hydraulic characteristics. The objectives of this work were to apply the pore network model to characterize pore structure from large images to quantify pore structure, calculate water retention and hydraulic conductivity properties from a three dimensional soil image, and to combine measured hydraulic properties from experiments with calculated hydraulic properties from image. Soil samples were taken from a site located at the Baltimore science center, which is located inside of the city. Undisturbed columns were taken from the site and scanned with a computer tomographer at resolutions of 22 ${\mu}m$. Pore networks were extracted by medial-axis transformation and were used to measure pore geometry from one of the scanned samples. Water retention and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity values were calculated from the soil image. Properties of soil bulk density, water retention and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity were measured from three replicates of scanned soil samples. 3D image analysis provided accurate detailed pore properties such as individual pore volumes, pore length, and tortuosity of all pores. These data made possible to calculate accurate estimations of water retention and hydraulic conductivity. Combination of the calculated and measured hydraulic properties gave more accurate information on pore sizes over wider range than measured or calculated data alone. We could conclude that the hydraulic property computed from soil images and laboratory measurements can describe a full structure of intra- and inter-aggregate pores in soil.