Estimating Wetting-induced Settlement of Compacted Soils using Oedometer Test

Abstract

Compacted soils undergo volume changes when wetted. Oedometer tests have been commonly used to estimate the settlement of unsaturated soils when wetted. Several variations of the oedometer test are available. The double-oedometer test has been more popular as it requires only two nominally identical specimens for the test to produce the unsaturated and saturated compression curves. The wetting induced settlement of a compacted soil at any load can be estimated by the difference in ordinate between the unsaturated and saturated compression curves. In this paper, it is shown that the unsaturated and saturated compression curves are linked by the initial degree of saturation and soil type. The compression curve of an unsaturated compacted soil can be derived from the compression curve of an inundated compacted soil, making it possible to estimate the wetting-induced settlement of compacted soils using a single oedometer test on an inundated specimen.