ABSTRACT
Some of the concepts and measurement procedures for determining the relationship between the amount of water in a soil and soil suction (i.e., SWCC) are now receiving increased research interest as unsaturated soil mechanics is increasingly being used in geotechnical engineering applications. It was prudent and appropriate that consideration be given in geotechnical engineering to the wealth of knowledge that has accumulated within soil physics and agriculture. Along with the wealth of accumulated knowledge and experience, however, there are serious differences between the goals to be achieved in agriculture-related disciplines and the goals of geotechnical engineering. Unfortunately, many of these limitations have often been overlooked in the eagerness to make use of the SWCC. Unfortunately, the laboratory test procedures from soil physics and the application
1 INTRODUCTION
The soil-water characteristic curve, SWCC, has become an important relationship to determine when applying unsaturated soil mechanics in engineering practice. The technologies related to the SWCC were originally developed in soil physics and agriculture-related disciplines. These technologies have slowly been embraced, with some modifications, in the application of unsaturated soil mechanics (Fredlund, 2002; Fredlund and Rahardjo, 1993).
