EFFECT OF PLASTICITY AND INITIAL COMPACTION CONDITIONS ON SOIL WATER CHARACTERISTICS CURVE OF FINE-GRAINED SOILS

The soil water characteristics curve (SWCC) of a soil plays an important role in study of unsaturated soil mechanics. The behavior of unsaturated soil is a complex phenomenon to understand and the direct measurement of unsaturated soil properties in laboratory or in field is costly and time consuming. Knowing the SWCC of a soil is useful in estimating the unsaturated property of a soil, which is close to the natural soil conditions and can be used in effective design procedure. The present study deals with the effect of plasticity and initial compaction conditions of a soil in the SWCC by using SWC-150 (Fredlund SWCC device) and WP4C dewpoint potentiometer. The test data obtained from both the device were best fitted using Fredlund and Xing (1994) equation (FX), Van Genutchen (1980) equation (VG), Burdine (1958) equation, and Mualem (1976) equation