Comparison of Soil–Water Characteristic Curves from Conventional Testing and Combination of Small-Scale Centrifuge and Dew Point Methods

Abstract

Soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is an important unsaturated soil property relating the 19 water content of a soil to soil suction and it is conventionally measured using Tempe cell, 20 pressure plate and salt solution methods. However, these tests are tedious and time consuming. 21The SWCC measurements using fast and efficient methods are required for engineering designs 22Revised Manuscript Click here to download Manuscript Comparison of SWCC test Methods(9Feb18).doc Click here to view linked References such as excavation, slope protection, retaining wall and landfill cover designs. This paper 23 describes the testing procedures and apparatuses associated with rapid measurements of a 24 complete SWCC of a residual soil as obtained from combined measurements using a small-scale 25 centrifuge and dew point methods. The SWCC test results obtained using these alternative 26 methods were compared with the SWCC data from Tempe cell, pressure plate and salt solution 27 methods. Shrinkage tests were carried out in this study to incorporate the volume change of soil 28 into SWCC. The experimental data from all SWCC tests were evaluated using first order 29 analysis with 95 % confidence interval for determination of upper and lower bounds of SWCC.30The analysis results showed that the SWCC data obtained from tests using small-scale centrifuge 31 and dew point methods were in good agreement with those obtained from Tempe cell, pressure 32 plate and salt solution methods. This indicates that the combination of small-scale centrifuge and 33 dew point methods can be used to generate a complete curve of SWCC for the residual soil. In 34 addition, the time required to perform SWCC tests using the alternative methods is shorter than 35 the SWCC tests using the conventional methods.

An Improved Prediction Method of Soil-Water Characteristic Curve by Geometrical Derivation and Empirical Equation

“…In the measurement of suction of unsaturated soils, compared with the pressure plate method or other methods, the filter paper method is more timeconsuming and cost-saving, and it also has larger measuring range [60]. erefore, this paper uses the filter paper method to obtain the entire suction-saturation datasets of sand, silt, and clay.…”

Stability and Consolidation of Sediment Tailings Incorporating Unsaturated Soil Mechanics

“…The water retention curve was obtained using axis translation technique with pressure plate supported with 15 bar ceramic disc following ASTM D6838-02 [28]. The laboratory data best-fit line was fitted using the Fredlund and Xing equation [29]. The water retention curve and the fitting parameter can be seen in Figure 1.…”

Variability of Bimodal Soil-Water Characteristic Curves under Different Confining Pressures

“…e main part of the Tempe cell and pressure plate is the porous ceramic plate. e procedures of SWCC testing were carried out following the study in [42]. Prior to linking up the Tempe cell to the pressure outlet of the manifold, saturation of the soil specimen was performed.…”