Geotechnical Engineering Journal of the SEAGS & AGSSEA ISSN 0046-5828
Vol. 47 No. 1 March 2016
Characteristic of Unsaturated Soil of Earth Fill Dams in Vietnam
By Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong and Trinh Minh Thu
ABSTRACT: In Vietnam, earth dams are generally used with in-situ soils having low clay content (especially earth dams at the central part of Vietnam). The knowledge, experience, theory for calculation, apparatus for unsaturated soils in Vietnam are still very limited, especially the studies of the influences of the shear strength of unsaturated soils to the stability of earthen structures. Therefore, the research to study the soil-water characteristic curve, shear strength and coefficient of permeability versus different matric suction on Vietnamese soil is an urgent issue and it has big scientific and practical meaning. This research shows that when the matric suction in the soil changes, the effective cohesion c’ would change, however the internal friction angle, f’, is almost unchanged for some type of soil in Vietnam. The experimental results would be applied to study the affect of unsaturated soil to the factor of safety of the slope.
KEYWORDS: Unsaturated soils, Earth fill dam, Seepage, Slope stability, Shear strength, Soil-water characteristic
