Experimental Validation of the Hydro-Mechanical Modeling of Unsaturated Soils

This paper addresses the experimental validation of the numerical modeling of the behavior of unsaturated soils. A three-phase hydro-mechanical model based on the continuum theory of mixtures is first briefly presented. The finite element formulation for the discrete approximation of the partial differential equations governing the problem is then introduced. The experimental validation of the coupled hydro-mechanical model is made with respect to a documented drainage experiment carried out by the authors. These laboratory experiments involved pore pressure and solid displacement measurements (both surface and in-plane displacements on a sidewall using image processing techniques), as well as flux data.