Laboratory tests to study stability mechanism of rainfall infiltrated unsaturated fine-grained soil slopes developing into shallow landslides and their hydraulic properties

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Civil Engineering, Izmir, 2013Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 116-123)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxiv, 123 leavesThis study consists of two parts. In the first part, saturated soils wetting band infiltration theories and the most widely used in the world by Lumb, 1975 and Pradel and Raad, 1993 compares theoretical predictions were compared with observed results which gave poor correlations. Results showed that both theories grossly underestimated wetting-band thicknesses. Because above mentioned two theories result in constant values, instead of giving values changing as functions of time. These theories need corrections, which indicate need for further studies. In the second part, hydraulic properties were determined (water-retention, hydraulic-conductivity) of locally obtained 3 undisturbed soils near saturation with a new Hyprop testing technique using the evaporation method. As the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) does not distinguish inorganic clay colloids by size (size