UNSATURATED SOIL MECHANICS
CHAPTER APPLICATION OF UNSATURATED SOIL MECHANICS IN ENGINEERING PRACTICE THE CONTENT OF THIS BOOK TAKES INTO CONSIDERATION THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL SOIL MECHANICS AND THE SIGNI?CANT IMPACT THAT THE COMPUTER HAS HAD ON THE PRACTICE OF GEOTECHNICAL ENGI- NEERING IT IS FAIR TO SAY THAT THE COMPUTER HAS RESULTED IN A PARADIGM SHIFT IN HOW GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING PROBLEMS IN GENERAL AND SPECI?CALLY UNSATURATED SOILS PROBLEMS ARE ANA- LYZED THE SIGNI?CANT ROLE THAT THE COMPUTER HAS PLAYED HAS ALSO BEEN TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION IN ASSEMBLING THE CON- TENT FOR THIS BOOK THE NATURE OF UNSATURATED SOIL PROBLEMS MAKES IT ESSENTIALLY IMPERATIVE TO USE NUMERICAL METHODS WHEN SOLVING GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING PROBLEMS TERZAGHI (1943) CONTRIBUTED SIGNI?CANTLY TOWARD OUR UNDERSTANDING OF UNSATURATED SOIL BEHAVIOR IN TWO CHAPTERS OF HIS TEXTBOOK THEORETICAL SOIL MECHANICS CHAPTER SCOPE OF THE BOOK THE SCOPE OF THIS BOOK IS LIMITED TO THE ?ELD OF UNSATURATED SOIL MECHANICS AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO COVER ALL ASPECTS NORMALLY ASSOCIATED WITH SOIL MECHANICS WHEN THE TERM “UNSATURATED SOIL MECHANICS” IS USED, THE AUTHORS ARE REFER- RING TO SOILS WHICH HAVE NEGATIVE PORE-WATER PRESSURES THE ASPECTS OF INTEREST TO GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FALL INTO THREE MAIN CATEGORIES THESE CAN BE LISTED AS PROBLEMS RELATED TO (1) ?OW OF ?UIDS (I E , AIR AND WATER IN LIQUID AND VAPOR FORM) THROUGH POROUS MEDIA, (2) SHEAR STRENGTH, AND (3) VOLUME-MASS CHANGE BEHAVIOR OF UNSATURATED SOILS AN ENTIRE CHAPTER IS DEVOTED TO UNDERSTANDING THE SOIL-WATER CHAR- ACTERISTIC CURVE A CHAPTER IS ALSO DEVOTED TO HEAT ?OW THROUGH SOILS AND ANOTHER CHAPTER IS DEVOTED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BOUNDARY CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR, EMPHASIS IS PLACED ON THE QUANTI?CATION OF THE GROUND SURFACE MOISTURE ?UX BOUND- ARY CONDITION EITHER MOISTURE IS FALLING TO THE GROUND, FOR EXAMPLE, IN THE FORM OF RAIN OR SNOW, OR MOISTURE IS MOV- ING UPWARD THROUGH EVAPORATION AND EVAPOTRANSPIRATION THE QUANTI?CATION OF BOTH DOWNWARD AND UPWARD MOISTURE ?OW IS PIVOTAL TO SOLVING UNSATURATED SOIL MECHANICS PROBLEMS WHILE THIS TOPIC WAS LARGELY ABSENT FROM CLASSICAL SATURATED SOIL MECHANICS, IT HAS BECOME AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT RELATED TO SOLVING UNSATURATED SOIL PROBLEMS NO ATTEMPT IS MADE TO DUPLICATE OR REDEVELOP INFORMATION ALREADY AVAILABLE IN CLASSICAL SATURATED SOIL MECHANICS BOOKS THIS BOOK SHOULD BE USED TO ASSIST THE GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER IN UNDERSTANDING SOIL MECHANICS CONCEPTS UNIQUE TO UNSAT- URATED SOILS AT THE SAME TIME, THESE CONCEPTS HAVE BEEN