Experimental study of the hydraulic behaviour of Melbourne silt

Soil partially saturated with water is referred to as unsaturated soil. Unsaturated soil has very complicated behaviour. A change in the degree of saturation can cause significant changes in soil volume, shear strength and hydraulic properties. Recently, research interest in soil’s thermo-hydro-mechanical interactive behaviour is growing due to an increasing number of geotechnical problems involving thermal and unsaturated issues. For example, soils surrounding buried nuclear waste would certainly be casted into elevated temperature and partially saturated conditions. The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC, also called soil-water retention curve, SWRC) has emerged as a widely used estimation tool for obtaining soil’s hydraulic properties in unsaturated state. However, the current test results and theoretical investigation on SWCCs are limited within isothermal states and deformation caused by temperature variation is usually neglected for simplification purpose. The proposed research aims to investigate the influences of temperature on the water retention behaviour of deformable unsaturated soil. Volume change caused by temperature variation will be taken into consideration. This research will produce a better understanding and interpretation of thermal effects on SWCCs by providing experimental results for deformable unsaturated soils.