CIEM 5770 – Chapter 1

Introduction and Classifications

Professor Charles Ng

Webpage: https://canvas.ust.hk/
 Some common queries
• What is unsaturated soil mechanics ?
• Why do I have to learn unsaturated soil
mechanics ?
• What are the major differences between
saturated and unsaturated mechanics ?
• When and how can I simplify complex
unsaturated soil problems ?
 Extremely Arid, Arid, and Semi Arid Regions of the World
(Meigs, 1953; Dregne, 1976; Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

o
75

o
60

40°
o
30

10°

Extremely Arid
Arid

Semi Arid

o o o o
90 60 30 30 60

The 10-40 window is +100and +400 latitude north contains about 60% of world population.
Much of the earth is arid or semi-arid (33% earth surface in 1970s)
 The negative and positive values are based upon the atmospheric pressure.

STRESS DISTRIBUTION DUE TO DESICCATION

The soil below the groundwater table is fully saturated and hence the value off for pressure
(Fredlund & Rahardjo,
is greater than atmospheric pressure called a 1993)
positive for water pressure.

The soil above the groundwater table is unsaturated and hence the pore pressure is less
than the atmospheric pressure. Thus, the pore water pressure is negative.

乾燥的

What is the physical meaning of –ve pore water pressure ????

How costly are expansive soils problems (Fredlund)
膨脹土
 Problematic Soils
(Ng & Menzies, 2007)
膨脹土 黃土

Expansive Soils are soils that have the ability to shrink and/or
swell, and thus change in volume, in relation to changes in their Loess often develops into extremely fertile agricultural
moisture content. soil. It is full of minerals and drains water very well. It
is easily tilled, or broken up, for planting seeds. Loess
are able to absorb water and swell, increasing in volume, when usually erodes very slowly
they get wet and shrink when they dry.
 S=South
N=North
W=Water
T=Transfer
P=Project
Approximate
Middle route of
West route
East route SNWTP
Test site

Three routes
of SNWTP
need 50years
to complete

Middle-route: 1,427 km, an open-channel canal with a trapezoidal

cross-section formed by cut slopes and fills for 9.5 billions m3 per year.
 • Intake canal of S/N Water Transfer Project (Middle Route)

60 m

Intake canal of S/N Water Transfer Project (Middle Route)

The test site (plate 2 – slope
failure)

Shallow retrogressive slope failures

• Failure of expansive soil slope at Dagangpo

Failure of expansive soil slope at Dagangpo

 Is there a need for
unsaturated soil mechanics ? (by Fredlund)

Why not popular ????

1.2 Categories of Soil Mechanics (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

What is negative uw ??
A visualization of saturated/unsaturated soils
based on the nature of fluid phases
(modified from Fredlund 1996)
S = Sr
Unsaturated soil
Dry soil 1 > S > Sr
Vadose zone

- Discontinuous water - Air filling most

phase voids
Two fluid phases
- Continuous water phase - Continuous air phase
Capillary fringe
- Water filling most voids - Discontinuous air phase
Ground water table
Saturated soil
- Water filling the voids - Air in a dissolved state

S=1
VOLUME CHANGE CONSTITUTIVE CATEGORIZATION
(Fredlund, 1996)

eg. Expansive soils eg. Loess soils

Are these good categories ?

 1.2 CATEGORIES OF UNSATURATED
SOIL MECHANICS PROBLEMS (Fredlund, 1996)

Are these good categories ?

1.3 Terminology
基質吸力+滲透吸力
Total suction = matric suction + osmotic suction
Matric suction = pore air-pressure (ua) - pore water-
pressure (uw)
Osmotic suction is defined in terms of a pressure, which
is a function of the amount of dissolved salts in
the pore fluid
Vadose zone - soil zone above water table
Capillary fringe - is a zone of soil immediately above
the water table, where the degree of saturation
approaches 100% or it remains saturated.
The pore water pressure is negative within this
zone.
1.4 Relationships between Climate Change, Ground Water and an
Unsaturated Soil (modified from Fredlund 1996)

Evaporation Evapotranspiration Precipitation

Hydrostatic
Downward
flux
Upward flux
Unsaturated
Negative Pore-air
pore-water pressure pressure soil
Total stress

Ground water table Capillary fringe

Saturated soil

Positive
pore-water
pressure
 EXAMPLES OF PROBLEMS REQUIRING AN UNDERSTANDING
OF UNSATURATED SOIL MECHANICS (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

(Man-made fill slopes)

10.) Pavement engineering (cyclic loading conditions)
 CONSTRUCTION OF A HOMOGENEOUS
ROLLED EARTH DAM (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

?
 CONSTRUCTION OF A HOMOGENEOUS
ROLLED EARTH DAM (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

Water phase

During transient unsaturated flow, water enters pores that were previously occupied by air (or air enters previously water-filled pores). .
In addition to the nonlinear nature of unsaturated flow, the mechanism of storage results in far greater storage capacity. That is, you
can change the volumetric water content by much more than you can change the porosity by changing the water pressure.

Air phase

How can we calculate transient and steady-state flows in unsaturated soil ?

 FILLING THE RESERVOIR (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

Water phase

Air phase

SOME RELEVANT QUESTIONS MIGHT BE ASKED

DURING THE FILLING OF THE RESERVOIR ?
 ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS DURING THE
OPERATION OF THE RESERVOIR (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

Water phase

SOME RELEVANT QUESTIONS MIGHT BE ASKED AS

STEADY STATE CONDITIONS ARE ESTABLISHED
?
 NATURAL SLOPES SUBJECTED TO
ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

Water table
RELEVANT QUESTIONS? ?
Sau Mau Ping landslide in loose fill in 1972
(Filled by Completely Decomposed Granite (CDG) or well-graded silty sand)
Sau Mau Ping landslide in loose fill in 1976
(HK Government, 1977)

Came down as a carpet

Caused by static liquefaction !!!????

Oblique Aerial View of Lai Ping Road Landslide 1997
Perched Water Table
 STABILITY OF VERTICAL OR
NEAR VERTICAL EXCAVATIONS (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

?
SOME RELEVANT QUESTIONS THAT MIGHT BE ASKED ARE
REFERRED TO THE STABILITY OF THE EXCAVATION SLOPES
LATERAL EARTH PRESSURES (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

SOME RELEVANT QUESTIONS MIGHT BE ASKED

PERTAINING TO LATERAL EARTH PRESSURES
?
 LATERAL EARTH PRESSURES
AGAINST WALLS (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

?
 BEARING CAPACITY FOR SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS
(Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

total stress anlaysis

ignore saturated x consider pore pressure
like Cu , Eu
1. When soil samples be taken, summer or winter ? effective stress anlaysis
2. Will the capacity of footing be affected segma', c', E' ,
by climate changes ?
3. Why FOS=3 ?

SOME POINTS ARE IMPORTANT TO DISCUSS REGARDING

THE DESIGN OF SUCH FOUNDATIONS.
EXPANSIVE SOILS PROBLEMS (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

?
 Structure cracking due to soil swelling 腫脹

Building on expansive soil, at Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Al-Rawas, A. A., Hago,A. W. & Al-Sarmi, H. (2t5). Effect of lime, cement and Sarooj (artificial pozzolan) on the
swelling potential of an expansive soil from Oman. Building and Environment, 40(5): 681-687.
 Inward bowing of the wall due to soil swelling
The estimated annual loss and damage to houses alone
= US$ 800 millions in America in 1970 (Nelson & Miller, 1992)

At Sharbot Lake, Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada Building on expansive soil

URL:http://www.mcinroybasementsystems.com/foundati Photo from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

on-repair/foundation-services/wall-straightening.html URL: http://geology.com/articles/expansive-soil.shtml
EXPANSIVE SOILS PROBLEMS (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

?
RELEVANT QUESTIONS MIGHT BE ASKED
REGARDING FOUNDATIONS ON EXPANSIVE SOILS
Foundation damage due to soil collapse

Foundation damage due to collapsible soils in Parump, Nevada.

Photo from Terra Pacific Consultants

URL: http://www.aegweb.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4082
EXPANSIVE SOIL CONDITIONS IN WESTERN CANADA

High plasticity and liquid limit,

stiff and dense

The lacustrine clay is a Calcium

Montmorillonite. The higher the
amount of monovalent cations
(e. g., Na) absorbed to the clay
mineral.
 RESIDUAL SOILS PROFILE (Fredlund & Rahardjo, 1993)

Traditional Understanding
• These soils have a microstucture that changes in a gradational manner with depth. Soil
at the top of the profile has no resemblance to the parent rock.
• Density, plasticity and compressibility are often less than that found in temperate zone
soils with comparable limit liquids.
• Strength, stiffness and permeability are likely to be higher than temperate zone soils
with comparable liquid limits.
Classifications of weathered rocks in Hong Kong

VI – Original rock texture completely destroyed

V (saprolite) - Original rock texture preserved but slakes when immersed in water
IV (saprolite)
42 - Original rock texture preserved and does NOT slake when immersed
in water
Geo-environmental Engineering
 Hiriya landfill slope failure in Israel in 1997

Crack
Waste mass slippage

Huvaj-Sarihan and Stark, 2008

(without liner system, final cover or leachate and gas control system

Possible failure mechanism:

(1) Steep slope angle, 35° at the time of failure (1.4H: 1V)
Payatas landfill slope failure in Philippines in 2000
Kolsch and Ziehmann, 2004

(without liner system)

Possible failure mechanisms:
(1) Large slope angle, 34° at the time of failure (1.5H: 1V)
(2) Heavy rainfalls , 68 cm rainfall in two weeks before
failure
 Payatas, Philippines (July 10, 2000)
• Landfill slope failed and 1.2 million m3 of waste buried huts at the
toe
• 200 people found dead and 800 people were missing immediately
after the incident

Slope Failure
Slope

Huts
Kolsch (2000) Kolsch (2000)

46
 Rumpke (USA), 1996

slope failure on March 9,1996,

when 1,2 Mio. m3 waste were
sliding down.

Source: http://www.dr-koelsch.de/html/landfill_stability.html
 Potential upward advection of
methane
• Monitoring, evacuation, remediation, and litigation are
costly when developments are constructed on top of
decommissioned landfills

Cracks within
capping
material

Upward methane movement

British Geological Survey (1992)

48
 Active landfills in Hong Kong
(man-made fill slopes and flat grounds)
Three large strategic landfills namely
• West New Territories (WENT) Landfill,
• South East New Territories (SENT) Landfill and
• North East New Territories (NENT) Landfill

13,500
tonnes of
waste daily

Thirteen small closed landfills are being restored, landscaped

and developed, but only use traditional construction methods
Source: http://www.epd.gov.hk
 Incinerator banned in Hong Kong

•
On 18 March 2012, around 500 Cheung Chau and Mui
Wo (in Lantau) residents marched to the new
Government Headquarters
• Super-incinerator on Shek Kwu Chau have now been
put on hold ('Bureau ditches HK$15b incinerator
Domestic wastes
funding are
bid', on not 2012)
21 April only HK problems but also
in many major cities worldwide

Source: http://www.epochtimes.com Source: 20120420 香港電台報導 環境局

 Traditional methods: Sliding failures between soil and geomembranes

A sliding failure that occurred during

construction of a 15-acre (6 ha) final cover
happened between PVC geomembrane and
the underlying slit film face of the
geosynthetic clay liner
Outdated, not safe, not robust enough, not-
environmentally friendly, not self-regenerative

Soil cover

A sliding failure occurred between the

geosynthetic clay liner and the LLDPE Geomembrane
geomembrane

Giround (2006)
Source: geosynthetics magazine
(http://geosyntheticsmagazine.com/articles/0608_f1_lfg.html)
973: Fundamental investigation of sustainable control and prevention
of environmental hazards induced by municipal solid waste landfill

“973”项目：城市固体废弃物填埋孕育环境灾害与可持续防控的基础研究

课题五
覆盖屏障水气传导与填埋气污
染控制
负责人： 吴宏伟(长江学者讲座教授)
参加单位：广州市香港科大霍英东研究院
浙江大学
起止时间：2012年1月—20016年12月
Landfill site at Xiaping, Shenzhen
Use waste to cover waste
Construction Waste
 Overview of the sloping ground
Slope angle： 300 ;
Annual cumulative rainfall: 1900 mm; No geomembrane!
Annual potential evapotranspiration (PET) : 1050 mm.

TB-S TV-S

Bermuda
grass

30o

6m 6m

Slope angle: 30o TB-S: Bare three-layer cover system

Total area: 300 m2 TV-S: Vegetated (Bermuda grass) three-
layer cover system
 Theoretical considerations of the all-weather
unsaturated landfill cover system
Cover with unsaturated capillary barrier effects (CCBE) has received attention, but only effective for
arid and semi-arid regions (Ross, 1990; Benson and Khire, 1995).
Ng, C. W. W., Xu, J., and Chen, R. (2015). “All-weather landfill soil cover system for preventing water infiltration and landfill
gas emission.” U.S. Patent No. 9,101,968 B2 (granted on August 11, 2015).

Arid & semi-arid regions

Permeability (k)
Humid region
Semi- humid region

Capillary
barrier
Capillary
barrier

Suction (φ)

Annual rainfall Annual rainfall of

of >800 mm 0 – 800 mm
(a) (b)
Three-layer landfill cover system and instrumentation

No geomembrane!
Pavement Engineering
 Cracking in pavement due to
soil shrinkage

Flexible (asphalt) pavement Rigid (concrete) pavement on expansive soil

URL: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/parched- URL: http://www.cenews.com/print-magazinearticle-

soil-takes-toll-on-roads-slabs-pipes-1914577.html moisturizing__stabilizing__and-5075.html
 Uneven surface of pavement on expansive soil
The estimated annual loss and damage to railway systems alone (1998)
= US$10 billions in America
= ¥100 millions in the Mainland

Photo from Colorado Geologic Survey Photo from U. S. Department of Transportation, Federal
URL:http://geosurvey.state.co.us/hazards/Swelling%20Soils Highway Administration
/Pages/Definition.aspx URL:http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infr
astructure/geotechnical/98139/04.cfm
 Pothole in pavement due to freezing and thawing

Pothole, in Banbury Oxfordshire UK Pothole, in New York City

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothole URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothole

 Field and laboratory investigation of hydro-geological
conditions at extreme drought climate
• Crack dynamics
 Mechanisms of development of
desiccation cracks
 Hierarchical crack structures
 Change of crack aperture with time,
boundary, and environmental factors
 Water infiltration in cracked soil
 Water infiltrate into cracked ground
 Permeability tensor
 Field and lab tests
 Strength of cracked soils

62
Green Slope Engineering
 The 11 September 1990 Tsing Shan debris flow

Killed 67

Stability and Restoration for

Natural Slopes
The 18 June 1972 Po Shan Road landslide

Killed 5
Tai O (2008)

64
The 23 July 1994 Kwun Lung Lau landslide
 Potential deep-seated failure
Potential shallow failure

Native and diverse species

Live pole (Reevesia)

from Tai Lam Grass
Reservoir

Self-regenerative
Diverse
vegetation
and sustainable
Grass root
(almost maintenance free) Soil nail

Live pole (root of small tree/shrub)

Deliverable: Integrated bioengineered (ecologically balanced)
65
live cover for natural slopes
 Overview of the HKUST Eco-Park

Embankment (22o and 33o slopes) N

Vegetated slopes
2m
22o 18 m
6m 33o

0.4 m
10 m

The PI, two co-Is, research

and final-year project students
Flat ground

66
Plantation scheme in flat ground
(different plant species and soil densities)

8m

6m
DOC= 80 %
2m Rain gauge
DOC= 93 %
2m JFT

DOC= 100 %

Bare Cynodon Paspalum Zoysia

dactylon notatum matrella
Note
JFT = Jet fill tensiometer
DOC= Degree of compaction 67
Fill thickness = 0.4 m
 Measurements of meteorological variables 氣候參數
Anemometer
Energy balance 能量平衡 (風速計)
Le = Rn - H - G
Le : Latent heat flux 潜热通量 (water水)
Rn : Net radiation 净辐射
H : Sensible heat flux 显热通量 (air空气)
G : Soil heat flux 土壤热通量

Rain gauge Pyranometer

2m
(量雨計) (日照强度計)

Weather station 氣象站

1.Wind speed & direction
2.Solar radiation
3.Air temperature & relative humidity
4.Hourly rainfall
68
 Atmospheric-controlled plant room
Temperature Temperature
(≈23oC) (≈19-21oC)

0.9m Cynadon
Dactylon
(Bermuda
1.8m
grass)

Schefflera
heptaphylla
(Ivy tree) Laboratory
investigation

6
 Failures of man-made fill slopes in Hong Kong
Came down
as a carpet

Over 5,000 Man-made Fill Slopes

Failure of man-made fill slope in Sau Mau Ping 1972 Sau Mau Ping landslide in loose fill in 1976

Require Stabilization and Restoration

Failure of man-made fill slope in 1994 70

 Potential deep-seated failure
Potential shallow failure

Native and diverse species

Cemented
soil

Grass
Live pole (Reevesia)
from Tai Lam
Reservoir

Diverse Man-made
vegetation fill slope
Grass root

Soil nail

Live pole (root of small tree/shrub)

Deliverable: Integrated bioengineered (ecologically balanced)

live cover for man-made fill slope
 New Paradigm: Soil capillary barrier (landfill cover system) for
reventing water infiltration and gas emission under all weather conditions

Live cover
Native and diverse species
Grass
Diverse h1
vegetation
Live pole
Self-regenerative, sustainable, Fine-grained (1)
h2

h3
no membrane and Coarse-grained

Ng, C.W.W. & Menzies, B. (2007)

almost maintenance free

Lateral
Fine-grained (2)

drainage  Gas

Deliverable: Integrated bioengineered (ecologically balanced) live landfill

capillary barrier
72