Analysis of Two Dimensional Consolidation of Unsaturated Soils.pdfVIP

Analysis of Two-Dimensional Consolidation of Unsaturated Soils Xue-shan CAO 1, Zong-ze YIN2 1Associate Professor, Hohai University , Nanjing 210098, China, Caoxueshan_7712@ 2Professor, Hohai University , Nanjing 210098, China, yinzz@ ABSTRACT: It is essential to study the practicality of consolidation and simplified approach of unsaturated soils with high degree of saturation. The water and air in the pores can be regarded as a mixed fluid in unsaturated soils when degree of saturation is between 70% and 95%. Mass balance, mixed fluid continuity, modified water continuity equations are then established regarding the compressibility of the mixed fluid in the pores. The influence of permeability and initial degree of saturation of soils are analyzed with the new method. The conclusions are: there is a strong interaction between the pore-air and pore-water in the consolidation of unsaturated soils with low permeability; the degree of pore-air pressure influence on consolidation of unsaturated soils is related to initial degree of saturation of soils. INTRODUCTION Infrastructure construction in China has increased tremendously as a result of the high speed economic development since 1980s. There are many problems related to the consolidation of unsaturated soils, such as the problems with slope stability of expansive soils in the south to north water transfer canal and the hydraulic fracturing in core wall of a hi