Unsaturated Soil Soil Water Characteristic Curve And Hydraulic Conductivity Measurement Methods

As one form of soil, unsaturated soil has connected pore air besides pore water in the skeleton. In most cases, people have to deal with unsaturated soil problems in engineering.Soil-water characteristic curve and hydraulic conductivity are important for determining the properties of unsaturated soils. At first, the physical meanings of the soil-water characteristic curve are introduced. Then a new technique to test the soil-water characteristic curve by the experiment of steady seepage is described in detail in this paper.It's an important way to study each phase of the unsaturated soil with the help of equilibrium analysis in soil mechanics. Based on the equilibrium analysis, the factor of the interaction force between soil water and soil particles is given in the paper. According to the testing data of some typical soils, experiment results of the factors of the interaction force are also given in this paper. The hydraulic conductivity can be directly concluded according to the factor.