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Volume Change Behavior of Unsaturated Residual Soil
Department of Civil Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia Faisal Hj. Ali and F. H. Choong Department of Civil Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | |
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ABSTRACT |
Residual soils occur in most countries of the world but the greater areas and depths are normally found in tropical humid areas. Most residual soils exhibit high soil suctions for most of the year. The absence of positive pore water pressure except immediately after rain makes conventional soil mechanics for saturated soil irrelevant. This research examines the volume change behavior of unsaturated residual soil under various levels of matric suction (ua - uw), and net mean stress (s - ua) in a predetermined stress path. The volume change of the soil is found to be sensitive to both the matric suction and net mean stress. Generally, the void ratio of the soil with matric suction is greater than the soil without matric suction due to the additional rigidity provided by the matric suction to the soil structure. On the other hand, the water content and degree of saturation of soil with matric suction was lower than the soil without the matric suction. It is also observed that there is an apparent unique relationship between the void ratio, matric suction and net mean stress of unsaturated residual soil when there is collapse (decrease in void ratio) due to the reduction in applied matric suction at constant net mean stress.
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