Prediction of the soil–water characteristic curves for the fine-grained soils with different initial void ratios

Soil–water characteristic curve (SWCC) contains the key information related to the hydromechanical properties of unsaturated soil. It is noted that the shapes of the SWCC for the fine-grained soils could be different if the specimens were prepared with different initial void ratios. The pore structure of soil is altered when the specimen experiences mechanical or suction loading. Determination of a group of SWCCs for different specimens through the experimental measurement is time-consuming and costly. In this paper, a new method is proposed to predict the SWCCs for the fine-grained soil with different initial void ratios. The measured SWCC in the form of gravimetric water content (SWCC-w) for the specimen with a high void ratio and the volumetric shrinkage curve is adopted as the input information. The SWCC-w for the specimen with another void ratio is subsequently estimated using the proposed method in this paper. The estimated results from the proposed method in this paper show a good agreement with the experimental data from the published literature. The proposed method provides an alternative method for the prediction of the SWCC for the fine-grained soil with different initial void ratios.