Alhamdulillah.. we had initiate our first unsaturated soil mechanics research collaboration between UTM and USM. Thanks for Dr. Ahmad Safuan and Dr. Hetty for initiating the idea & continuous efforts. We love to welcome Dr. Mastura and Dr. Haris for this collaboration. The area of research that we will work together on the Rainfall induce slope. We hope the research will be a smooth sailing. In Sya Allah…
I m looking forward for any colobration in unsaturated soil research framework particularly in ASEAN countries.
Currently we (FKA) had purchase our first unsaturated research apparatus which is 15 bar pressure extractor. Follow with GDS Double Wall Triaxial Cell.
I wish that FKA Geotechnical Research group could further our interest in coupling effect of hydro-mechnanical behaviour of unsaturated soil. Among my future interest on experimental works in Unsaturated as follow:-
Last 40 years, most of soil mechanics researches and practices based on saturated and dry soils mechanics. Unsaturated soil is barely been discussed in details, but last 20 years the development and understanding been gradually increase as there are growing concerns on subject.
An unsaturated soil has commonly been refereed to as a three-phase system containing solid, water and air phases. However, Fredlund & Rahardjo (1993) have postulated that unsaturated soil is a four phase material containing three phases as mentioned above along with the addition of a “contractile skin” which represents the interfacial surface tension between water and air.
The natural process of de-saturation or practices adopted in geotechnical engineering such as placement and compaction of fills are where the possibility of unsaturated soils to occur. Basically, soils become unsaturated in three different types which are evapo-transpiration from the ground surface, compacted soils and gassy soils.
To be continued…
Fig1: Evapo-transpiration from the ground surface