Consolidation Characteristics of Unsaturated Soil

Abstract

Construction of embankments on soft soil often poses problems and challenges. They are usually caused by lateral movement, insufficient bearing capacity and excessive settlement. Understanding the mechanisms of instabilities is important to determine potential mitigation measures. A laboratory model testing program is being done to investigate the performance of model embankment. Synthetic transparent soil is used to mimic the soft clay foundation. It permits the use of simple optical technique to visualize spatial deformation patterns in the foundation. This paper reports the consolidation properties of synthetic transparent amorphous silica used in this study. Matching the refractive indices of amorphous silica with pore fluid used is necessary to achieve a more transparent soil. It was shown that the consolidation characteristics of the artificial clay compares reasonably well with natural clays and peat soils.