EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE BEHAVIOR OF UNSATURATED COMPACTED SILT UNDER TRIAXIAL COMPRESSION

Most of the experimental investigations conducted on unsaturated soil have been performed under a constant air pressure. Changes in air pressure during deformation are in some cases important in practice. For example, in order to explain the stability problems of embankments during earthquakes and seepage flow, and grounds containing gas associated with the dissociation of methane hydrates, it is necessary to consider the interaction between the soil and the pore fluids. In the present study, we carried out fully undrained tests as well as drained tests, namely, constant water and constant air shearing tests. We performed the fully undrained tests using an air-controlled valve to measure the pore air pressure. For the stress variables of the unsaturated soil, skeleton stress values were used to describe the experimental results. From triaxial compression tests on silty soil, we found that the initial suction, the confining pressure, and the strain rate of unsaturated soil strongly influence the stress-strain behavior of unsaturated silt.