ABSTRACT
Stress-strain behaviour of unsaturated soils seems rather different from that of saturated ones. It should however be described properly because soil may lie under an unsaturated state in the actual field. In the present study, a model taking account of the necessary characteristics of unsaturated soils is proposed by extending an existing model for saturated ones based on the Bishop’s effective stress. In the model, variation in the degree of saturation is estimated by a newly proposed model for water retention curve considering the effects of hydraulic hysteresis and density, and the increase in the degree of saturation is linked with downward movement of normally consolidation line in the mean effective stress vs. void ratio plane in order to describe the typical behaviours of unsaturated soils. In the present paper, mechanisms of consolidation, soaking and compaction behaviours of unsaturated soils are discussed through the simulations by the proposed model.
