Simulation of soil-water characteristic curves during drying and wetting cycles

Many researchers focus on deformation and strength of the soils experienced wetting and drying cycles. But few researches have been conducted on soil-water characteristic curve of the soils experienced wetting and drying cycles. Because the processing of suction equalization takes too long time, the studies of soil-water characteristic curve of the soils experienced drying and wetting cycles are mostly limited to a single wetting and drying cycle. But considering the variability of the actual climatic conditions encountered in geotechnical engineering and the complexity of natural environment, generally soils experience many drying and wetting cycles. Therefore the study of the soil-water characteristic curves of soils experienced many drying and wetting cycles is significant. On the basis of the existing experimental data about the variation of the drying and wetting curves with the numbers of drying and wetting cycles, a method is proposed by introducing a function of the number of drying and wetting cycle, which is capable of predicting the soil-water characteristic curve of soils experienced drying and wetting cycles. Once the first drying and wetting curves and plasticity index of the soil are given, the method can predict the soil-water characteristic curve of the soils experienced drying and wetting cycles.