Capillary collapse of unsaturated granular soils: Experimental investigation and microscale insights

Abstract

The capillary collapse is an irreversible volume reduction of partially saturated soils caused by the provision of water at essentially unchanging total vertical stress. Despite extensive research, the processes involved are still not fully understood. Therefore, with the help of a newly developed experimental set-up for CT-based miniature tests presented in this paper, further insights at the micro scale will be gained.