Unsaturated Soil Mechanics with Probability and Statistics

Soil is fundamentally a multiphase material consisting of solid particles, water and air. In soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering it is widely treated as an elastic, elastoplastic or viscoelastoplastic material, and consequently regarded as a continuum body.However, this book explores an alternative approach, considering soil as a multiphase and discrete material and applying basic Newtonian mechanics rather than analytical mechanics. It applies microscopic models to the solid phase and fluid phases, and then introduces probability theory and statistics to derive average physical quantities which correspond to the soils macroscopic physical properties such as void ratio and water content.This book is particularly focused on the mechanical behaviour of dry, partially saturated and full saturated sandy soil, as much of the physicochemical microscopic characteristic of clayey soil is still not clear. It explores the interparticle forces at the point of contact of soil particles and the resultant interparticle stresses, instead of the total stress and effective stress which are studied in mainstream soil mechanics. Deformation and strength behaviour, soilwater characteristic curves, and permeability coefficients of water and air are then derived simply from grain size distribution, soil particle density, void ratio and water content.A useful reference for consultants, professional engineers, researchers and public sector organisations involved in unsaturated soil tests. Advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students on Unsaturated Soil Mechanics courses will also find it a valuable text to study.