high cost and long time required to determine a retention curve by the conventional methods of the richards Chamber and haines Funnel limit its use; therefore, alternative methods to facilitate this routine are needed. The filter paper method to determine the soil water retention curve was evaluated and compared to the conventional method. undisturbed samples were collected from five different soils. Using a Haines Funnel and Richards Chamber, moisture content was obtained for tensions of 2; 4; 6; 8; 10; 33; 100; 300; 700; and 1,500 kPa. in the filter paper test, the soil matric potential was obtained from the filter-paper calibration equation, and the moisture subsequently determined based on the gravimetric difference. The van Genuchten model was fitted to the observed data of soil matric potential versus moisture. Moisture values of the conventional and the filter paper methods, estimated by the van Genuchten model, were compared. The filter paper method, with R² of 0.99, can be used to determine water retention curves of agricultural soils as an alternative to the conventional method.

The rock mass deformation modulus, E rm , is an input parameter for most numerical modeling to verify the deformation behavior of rocks due to rock engineering activities within/on it. Among the most common methodologies used for estimating this parameter, empirical correlations based on rock mass classification schemes (e.g., RQD, RMR, GSI, and Q) stand out the most, principally because of their low cost when compared to the other methods. Herein, the main correlations used in practice are evaluated and comparted for 48 different rock quality scenarios, previously characterized and classified according to rock mass classification systems. The results obtained by each of the empirical correlations demonstrated that normalized correlations, that is, based on the ratio of the rock mass and intact rock modulus, E rm /E i , underestimate the E rm values when compared to those results obtained from notnormalized correlations in the scenarios of better quality rock masses. For poor quality rock mass scenarios, both non-normalized and normalized correlation presented similar results. The correlations proposed by Hoek and Diederichs (2006) and Galera et al. (2007) estimated more central Erm values when compared to the other correlations, for all quality scenarios, while the Mitri et al. (1994) and Sonmez et al. (2006) methods estimated most high and low values of E rm , respectively.

The study presents an experimental and numerical study on an unsaturated, non-plastic and poorly graded sand, originated from Fortaleza-CE, Brazil. The numerical analyses used the Finite Element Method (FEM), were performed using the UNSTRUCT software to simulate the curve stress versus strain, considering the effect of suction on soil stiffness. Characterization and determination of the retention curve were performed through filter paper tests, which were used to determine the stress versus strain curve in a double-oedometer test. Suction was considered constant along the entire test. From the numerical analyses done with UNSTRUCT software presented satisfactory results, especially in the presence of suction profiles, that show the variation of suction along of the depth. It can be concluded that higher suction values (and soil stiffness) generate lower settlements.

O presente artigo apresenta uma análise experimental e numérica do comportamento de um solo não saturado no que diz respeito à capacidade de carga de fundações superficiais. Para isso, apresentam-se inicialmente os resultados de duas provas de carga diretas executadas em uma placa de 30cm de diâmetro no Campo Experimental de Fundações da Universidade Federal do Ceará, com o solo em duas diferentes condições, uma com perfil de umidade natural e outro com pré-inundação. Foram coletadas amostras do solo em cada um dos ensaios, sendo o solo posteriormente caracterizado. As sucções do solo nas duas situações foram estimadas através da curva de retenção de água. Na sequência, apresentam-se vários perfis de sucção para o solo de acordo com a metodologia proposta por Lu e Likos (2004) e em seguida foram aplicadas as propostas de Oloo et al. (1997), Vanapalli e Mohamed (2007), Briaud (2013), Vahedifard e Robinson (2016) e Tang et al. (2017) para a determinação da capacidade de carga de fundações diretas em solos não saturados. Os valores obtidos na aplicação desses métodos mostraram valores de capacidade de carga bastante coerentes com a carga última determinada através da extrapolação da curva tensão versus recalque da prova de carga direta não saturada.

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