A possible critical state framework for unsaturated compacted soils Available to Purchase

Elasto-plastic models have recently been proposed to account for coupling between mechanical behaviour and water retention behaviour in unsaturated soils (Vaunat et al, 2000; Gallipoli et al., 2003b; Wheeler et al., 2003). Coupling includes the dependence of the water retention curves on void ratio and the dependence of yielding and plastic compressibility on hydraulic hysteresis. There is little experimental evidence for the effect of hydro-mechanical coupling on shear strength.

A common feature of these latest models is the use of five state variables: two isotropic stresses, one deviator stress, and two volumetric variables....