L-4 Nature and Genesis of Unsaturated Soils

Nature and genesis of unsaturated
soils
Lecture – 4-1
Introduction
• The term soil as used in geotechnical
engineering encompasses a wide spectrum of
particulate materials.
• In the saturated state all the void spaces
between the particles are filled with water,
but in the unsaturated state a proportion of
the void spaces is filled with air.
Introduction
• Wide range of particle sizes and the inherent
variability of soils give rise to behavioural
characteristics not readily amenable to rigorous
analysis.
• Stress history, particle shape and time-
dependent characteristics also influence their
multi-faceted behaviour, generally requiring
simplifications and generalizations in
formulating solutions to geotechnical problems.
Phases
• The solid particles, water and air are the phases
making up a soil mass.
• Classically, researchers have achieved recognizable
success in developing an understanding of the
behaviour of saturated, fine-grained soils and the
behaviour of dry, coarse materials, such as sand and
gravel.
• Extending our understanding to the behaviour of
unsaturated soils, particularly those with a significant
percentage of fines, has proved problematic.
Phases
• This is principally because of the additional
fluid phase of air or other gases in the void
spaces, which complicates the thorny issue of
the controlling stress regime.
• Interpretation of the behaviour of unsaturated
soils requires the differences in the air and
water pressures, the phase compressibilities
and their interactions, as well as chemical
effects, to be taken into account.
Phases
• The interactions include the contractile skin
between the fluid phases, which gives rise to a
surface tension effect that is particularly influential
in creating the characteristic aggregated structure
of fine-grained soils.
• Any soil near the ground surface in a relatively dry
environment is liable to have a negative pore
water pressure (water pressure relative to a datum
of atmospheric air pressure) and could experience
de-saturation or air entry into the pore spaces.
Negative pore water pressure
• Compacted fills such as in earth dams, road

subgrades and embankments are also usually
placed in an unsaturated state as complete
compaction and closure of all air voids is
generally impractical.
• Negative pore water pressure is the key to
understanding unsaturated soil behaviour and
in interpreting the significance to engineering
structures.
Climate
• Climate plays an important role in the
formation of unsaturated soils with
evaporation in hot weather drying out the
ground leading to shrinkage of fine grained
soils and, ultimately, to shrinkage cracking.
• Subsequent wetting, following rain, leads to
swelling and closure of cracks, but not
necessarily to total eradication of suction
induced soil structure.
Volume relationships
• An important theme is the thermodynamic

link between the pressures (and stresses) and
the volumes of the phases in a soil at
equilibrium, and the link between the
pressures (and stresses) and specific strain
increments in analysing changes between
equilibrium states.
• These ‘conjugate’ variables are particularly
relevant in unsaturated soils.
Vv Vs Vw Va
n  ; ns  ; nw  ; na 
V V V V
ns  n  ns  nw  na  1
Degree of saturation, Sr
• The degree of saturation Sr is also a commonly used

variable in unsaturated soils and is expressed in
percentage terms as:
Vw
Sr  X 100%
Vv
• For dry soils Sr = 0 and for saturated soils Sr = 100%.

• Between these two extremes the degree of
saturation has an intermediate value.
Degree of saturation Sr
• The degree of saturation is an important

term where there is fluid movement as it
expresses the relative volumes of the
water and air in the pore spaces.
• However, the controlling stresses and the
strength of unsaturated soils are often
correlated with the degree of saturation.
Degree of saturation Sr
• The use of the degree of saturation, on its own, is

considered a poor choice of variable to which to
relate stresses and strength.
• There is no term for the volume of the solids in the
definition of Sr, yet it is the solid particles that give a
soil its strength.
• Far better variables and ones that emerge naturally
from thermodynamic analysis are the specific
volume v, the specific water volume vw and the
specific air volume va defined as:
V V  Vw V
v  1 e  ; vw  1  eSr  s ; va  e1  S r   a
Vs Vs Vs
The specific volume terms are additive in a

similar manner to the porosity terms other
than the term for the volume of solids
which is included within the specific water
volume; thus:
v  v w  va
Soil suction
• Soil suction is a major factor affecting the
behaviour of unsaturated soils.
• Total suction has two components, namely
matric suction and osmotic suction.
• This can be expressed as:
  ua  u w   s
where (ua − uw) is the matric suction, being the difference between the pore air
pressure ua and the pore water pressure uw, and φs is the osmotic suction, being the
result of chemical imbalance between the pore water in the soil volume under
consideration and an external source of water.
Partial vapour pressure
• The partial vapour pressure of the soil water can
be used to measure the free energy state of the
soil water, and the following thermodynamic
relationship exists between soil suction and the
partial vapour pressure:
RuT w  uv 
  ln 
v  uvo 
where Ru is the universal gas constant, T is absolute temperature, u v is the partial
pressure of pore water vapour, uvo is the saturation pressure of pore water over a
flat surface of pure water at the same temperature (uv/uvo is the relative
humidity R ) and ω is the molecular mass of water vapour.
Osmotic suction
• The osmotic suction represents the ionic potential of
the pore fluid in a soil which can attract or remove
water from a system.
• Osmotic suction can be altered by either changing
the mass of water or the amount of ions in solution.
• However, the strength of an unsaturated soil is
principally controlled by the matric suction, even
though the presence of salts within the soil water
can give rise to some fundamental changes in
mechanical behaviour.
Matric suction
• Matric suction is a result primarily of the
phenomenon of capillarity, but is also
influenced by surface adsorption effects.
• The capillarity phenomenon is directly related
to the surface tension of water and results, for
example, in water rising up thin capillary tubes,
as illustrated in the Figure, and forming a
curved surface between the water and air
known as a meniscus.
Principles
• The water surface in a brim-full glass stands above the
lip because of surface tension at the air-water interface.
• When the glass is less than full the interface turns up at
its edges, pulling up on water.
• The magnitude of the surface tension Ts is an air-water
interface is nominally 0.0075 g/mm.
• This taut interface, or meniscus, can cause water to rise
above a free water surface in a small tube and in
continuous small voids.
• This effect is referred to as capillary rise.
Computation of capillary rise
• The figure illustrates
hypothetical soil
column in a deposit
with the free water
surface at a-a.
• A single capillary
above a-a is shown
shaded to indicate it
is filled with water.
zc d 2 w
dTs cos  ; if   0
4
4T
zc  s
d w
d = effective diameter of the capillary given by

d = D10/5;
D10 = effective size of particles
Example
• Since fine sand or silt soils are by definition
those which pass the opening of the No. 200
sieve, and this opening is 0.074 mm, D10 could
be estimated as this opening size. Then, from
the equation :
4 X 0.0075g / mm
zc   2000 mm  2 m
0.074 mm
X 0.001 g / mm3
5
Capillary rise is very large in very fine soils and almost negligible clean, coarse sand
and gravel.
Effective stress
• Capillary action also increases effective stress
above the free water surface. For instance force
equilibrium at the meniscus requires:
• u= -zcɣw
• Linear increase in effective stress from the free
water surface to the height of capillary rise,
caused by capillary action.
• This increment is effective stress in addition to
that due to soil weight.
Matric suction
• In unsaturated soil mechanics, the water–air
interface is often referred to as the contractile
skin.
• For equilibrium at the air–water interface in the
capillary tube, the pressure difference across the
meniscus (ua − uw) is given by:
2Ts
ua  uw  
R
ua  uw    w gzc , R  r cos 
• r is the radius of the capillary tube,
• Ts is the surface tension of the air–water
interface (contractile skin) with units of
force per unit length or energy per unit
area and α is the contact angle of the
air–water interface with the wall of the
capillary tube.
Capillary rise
• In soils, the pores act as tortuous capillary tubes

and result in the soil water rising above the
water table.
• The finer the pores, the greater the meniscus
curvature and the higher the water is elevated.
• The capillary water has a negative water
pressure with respect to the air pressure and its
magnitude is inversely proportional to the radius
of curvature of the meniscus.
Capillary rise
• In other words, negative pore water pressure, or
matric suction, increases as the radius of the
meniscus decreases.
• Accordingly, fine-grained soils normally experience
greater capillary rise than coarse-grained soils
where the pore spaces are larger, though there are
recognizable effects on the overall capillary rise
from changes in pore diameter within soils, as soils
comprise discrete particles not uniform tubes.
Surface adsorption phenomena
• Surface adsorption phenomena also

influence the matric suction and are
particularly important to clay minerals.
• Surface adsorption results from the
negatively charged surfaces of clay
particles.
• The relatively powerful electrical force
Water adsorption by a clay particle
Exercise
1. What kind of climatic conditions tent to lead to the
formation of a thick unsaturated zone?
2. What is the fundamental difference between
unsaturated soils and saturated soils in terms of pore
water pressure?
3. Describe and illustrate the Mohr-Coulomb failure
criterion.
4. When the state of stress (i.e., Mohr circle) in a soil
reaches the Mohr-Coulomb criterion, what is the
state of stress called?
Exercise
5. Give three examples of unsaturated soil
mechanics problems in geotechnical engineering.
6. For a given unsaturated soil under either a dry or
wet condition, which one has a higher suction?
7. What are state variables, material variables, and
constitutive laws?
8. What are the principal differences between
saturated and unsaturated soil profiles of pore
water pressure, total stress, and effective stress?

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Nature and genesis of unsaturated

• Compacted fills such as in earth dams, road

• An important theme is the thermodynamic

• The degree of saturation Sr is also a commonly used

• For dry soils Sr = 0 and for saturated soils Sr = 100%.

• The degree of saturation is an important

• The use of the degree of saturation, on its own, is

The specific volume terms are additive in a

d = effective diameter of the capillary given by

• In soils, the pores act as tortuous capillary tubes

• Surface adsorption phenomena also

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