Effect of constant loading on unsaturated soil under water infiltration conditions

In many tropical regions, soil structures often fail under constant loads as a result of decreasing matric suction due to water infiltration. Most of the previous studies have been performed by infiltrating water in the soil specimen by keeping shear stress constant at 85-90% of peak shear strength in order to ensure specimen failure during water infiltration. However, not many studies are available to simulate the soil behavior when water is infiltrated at lower shear stress and how the deformations affect the soil behavior if the failure did not occur during water infiltration. This research aimed at understanding both the strength and deformation behavior of unsaturated soil during the course of water infiltration at 25%, 50% and 75% of maximum deviatoric stress and axial strain by keeping them constant. A unique stress-strain curve expresses the transient situation from unsaturated condition to failure state due to water infiltration is also drawn. The shearing-infiltration test results indicate that the water infiltration reduces matric suction and increase soil deformation. This research also indicates that unsaturated soil failure problems should not always be treated as shear strength problems but deformation should also be considered while addressing the problems related to unsaturated soils.