This course is not currently offered, please contact the school or faculty of your program.

Course description

(minimum enrolment of 10 students required) Introduction to unsaturated soil mechanics principles; total, matric and osmotic suctions; description of laboratory testing methods applicable to unsaturated soils, including triaxial testing with suction measurement and Tempe cell testing; soil water characteristic curves (SWCCs); drying, wetting and scanning SWCCs; fitting SWCC data; description of laboratory and field saturated hydraulic conductivity testing; unsaturated hydraulic conductivity functions; applications of unsaturated soil mechanics principles; laboratory versus field SWCC data; applications of unsaturated soil mechanics principles; difficulties in modelling unsaturated soil behaviour; importance of unsaturated soil mechanics for design in geotechnical engineering.