ABSTRACT
The Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) is defined as the relationship between the effective degree of saturation Se (or degree of saturation, Sr) and the matric suction s (or soil-water potential ψ). The effective degree of saturation can be defined as follows:
where Sr ≥ S resr and S resr is the residual degree of saturation and is a constant, irrespective of the applied suction or mechanical loads. The soil-water characteristic curve is also called the soil moisture characteristic curve or the soil-water retention curve. A soil’s SWCC can usually give an indication of its hydraulic properties and has various applications in soil physics and soil mechanics. The SWCC is widely used to predict hydraulic conductivity, soil water storage, field capacity and soil aggregate stability in agricultural engineering (Brady, 1999). It is also commonly employed in estimating the permeability, shear strength and stressstrain relationships of unsaturated soils (Sheng, 2011).
