CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE-PHASE RELATIONSHIPS

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Instructor: Bipin Gupta, Contact: Motwani Building – Room no: MB-608, email: [email protected], Phone no: 0512-259-2143 (O)
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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM

• Soil Mass
 Solids  small grains of mineral particles and organic matter or both
 Voids  water and air

• Soil mass may be saturated (voids filled with water), dry (void has no water) or partially
saturated (both air and water are present).

VOLUME WEIGHT VOLUME WEIGHT VOLUME WEIGHT

Va Air Wa = 0
Vv Vv = Vw Ww Vv = Va Air Wa = 0
Water
Vw Water Ww

V W V W V W
Vs Ws Vs Ws Vs Ws
Solids Solids Solids

Three-Phase system Two-Phase system Two-Phase system

Voids Solids (partially saturated) (saturated) (dry)

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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM (DEFINITIONS)

• Void ratio  ratio of vol. of voids to the vol. of solids VOLUME

V Va Air
e v Vv
Vw
Vs Water
V
expressed as a decimal. Ranges from 0  ; however, typical Vs
Solids
values range from 0.4  1 (for sand), 0.3  1.5 (for clays),
organic soils can be even higher.
Three-Phase system

• Porosity  ratio of vol. of voids to total vol. of soil

V
n  v  100%
V
expressed as a percentage. Ranges between 0  100 %.

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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM (DEFINITIONS)

VOLUME
• Degree of Saturation  ratio of vol. of water to the Va Air
vol. of voids Vv
Vw Water
V
S w V
Vs
Vv Solids

expressed as a percentage. S = 1 for saturated soil (Vw = Vv) and S

= 0 for dry soil (Vw = 0). 0  S  100 %. Three-Phase system

VOLUME VOLUME

Vv = Vw Water Vv = Va Air

V V
Vs Vs
Solids Solids

Two-Phase system (saturated) Two-Phase system (dry)

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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM (DEFINITIONS)

• Water content  ratio of wt. of water in the voids to WEIGHT

the wt. of soil solids Air Wa = 0

W Water Ww
w w W
Ws
Solids Ws
expressed as a percentage, ranges from 0 to several hundred
percent. Natural w for most soils is under 100%, but for some
soils (e.g., bentonite) it can range up to 500 % or even more. Three-Phase system

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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM (DEFINITIONS)

VOLUME WEIGHT

• Bulk unit weight  total wt. of the soil mass per unit Va Air Wa = 0
Vv
volume. Vw Water Ww

W Ws  Ww V W
t   Vs
Solids Ws
V Vs  Vw  Va

VOLUME WEIGHT
• Dry unit weight  wt. of the soil solids per unit
volume. Vv = Va Wa = 0
Air
Ws
d  V W
V Vs
Solids Ws
d is the measure of the denseness of soil. High value of d
indicates more solids are packed in a unit volume of soil (a more
compact soil).

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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM (DEFINITIONS)

• Saturated unit weight (S = 100 %)  total wt. of fully VOLUME WEIGHT

saturated the soil per unit volume. Vv = Vw Water Ww

W W  Ww
 sat   s V W
V V Vs Ws
Solids
• Submerged unit weight  submerged wt. of soil solids per
unit volume.
 '   sat   w
w ( Ww/Vw)is the unit wt. of water; generally equal to 1.0 g/cc or 9.8 kN/m3.

• Unit weight of solids  wt. of soil solids to the vol. of soil solids.
W
s  s
Vs
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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM (DEFINITIONS)

Murthy (2007)

Porosity, void ratio, water content, and unit weight of typical soils
Soil type e w (%)  saturated d sat
Uniform sand, loose 0.85 32 14.0 18.5
Uniform sand, dense 0.51 19 17.0 20.5
Mixed-grained sand, loose 0.67 25 15.6 19.5
Mixed-grained sand, dense 0.43 16 18.2 21.2
Soft glacial clay 1.02 45 11.9 17.3
Soft slightly organic clay 1.90 70 9.1 15.5
Soft highly organic clay 3.00 110 6.8 14.0
Soft bentonite 5.20 194 4.2 12.4

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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM (DEFINITIONS)

• Specific gravity of soil solids  ratio of wt. of a given VOLUME WEIGHT

volume of soil solids to the wt. of an equivalent volume Vv = Vw Water Ww

of water at 4 C.
V W
Ws  Vs
Gs   s Solids Ws

Vs  w  w
Ranjan and Rao (2007)

Typical values of Gs
Soil type Gs
Clean sands and gravel 2.65 - 2.68
Silt and silty sands 2.66 - 2.70
Inorganic clays 2.70 - 2.80
Soils high in mica, iron 2.75 - 2.85
Organic soils Quite variable; may fall below 2.0

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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM (INTER-RELATIONSHIPS)

• Can be obtained
 Starting with the basic definition of one of the parameters involved.
 From a phase diagram  one of the vol. or wts. is taken as unity and the vols. and wts. of all other
quantities are worked out in terms of the assumed value by using one or the other ratio defined
earlier.

• Relation between e and n

V Vv V /V Vs  1 Air
n v   v s Vv = e
V Vs  Vv 1  Vv / Vs Vv  e Water
V
e V  Vs  Vv  1  e Vs = 1
 Solids
1 e Vv e
n 
V 1 e

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CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THREE PHASE SYSTEM (INTER-RELATIONSHIPS)

• Some useful relationships
W ( G s  e ) w
Ws   sat 
1 w 1 e
V G 
Vs  d  s w
1 e 1 e
e '
 
 G s  1  w
n
1 e 1 e
wG s Gs w
e e 1
S d
G (1  w ) w t
t  s d 
1 e 1 w
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 CE 631A: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

THANK YOU

Instructor: Bipin Gupta, Contact: Motwani Building – Room no: MB-608, email: [email protected], Phone no: 0512-259-2143 (O)
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