Fredlund & Rahardjo (1993)

Traditional soil mechanics practice has experienced significant changes during the past

few decades. Some of these changes are related to increased attention being given to

the unsaturated soil zone above the groundwater table. Increased concerns over the

environment have, in part, "fuelled" the need to better understand the behaviour of

the zone near ground surface.

The portion of the soil profile where the pore-water pressures are negative, is known

as the vadose zone. Unsaturated soil mechanics has become a necessary tool for analysing the
behaviour of soils in the vadose zone and the flux boundary conditions as required in many geotechnical
and geo-environmental problems.

Arid and semi-arid regions of the world comprise more than one-third of the earth's surface. Soils in
these regions are dry and desiccated near the ground surface. These conditions may extend to a
considerable depth and in some cases the water-table may be more than 30 metres below ground
surface. Even under humid climatic conditions the groundwater table can be well below the ground
surface and the soils used in construction are unsaturated. Engineering organizations have realized the
need for a technical discipline which more specifically addresses the soil mechanics problems related to
unsaturated soils. This has brought about the formation of a committee on Soils in Arid Regions within
the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (ISSMFE), the committee on
Unsaturated Soils within the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE), and the committee on Soils in
Arid Regions within the Transportation Research Board (TRB). The formation of these committees bears
witness of the growing awareness of the need to better understand unsaturated soil behaviour

Stress State Variable

There now appears to be a fairly general consensus that the stress state for an

unsaturated soil should be described using two independent stress tensors with two

independent normal stress variables (Fredlund and Morgenstern, 1977). These two

variables become a logical extension of the effective stress variable used for a

saturated soil and are shown in Eq. 1.

The (o - u, ) term is called the net normal stress and the ( u, - u,) term is called the

matric suction. Other variables are defined under the Definition of Soil Terms. Figure

8 illustrates how two independent normal stresses can be used to define the stress

state at a point.

The simplest way to visualize the need for two independent stress state variables is
to realize that total stress changes and pore-water pressure changes do not produce

equivalent responses in an unsaturated soil. This sets their behaviour apart from that

of saturated soils. This is true for both shear strength and volume change behaviour.
Shear Strength Parameters:

The shear strength equation for unsaturated soils has been formulated as a linear

combination of the stress state variables incorporating shear strength parameters.

Application of unsaturated soil mechanics in slope stabilization

Numerous slope failures frequently occur in steep residual soil slopes with a deep groundwater table
during rainfalls. A signifcant thickness of unsaturated soil zone above the groundwater table is a general
characteristic of steep residual soil slopes. Negative pore-water pressures or matric suctions as a crucial
part of the stability of residual soil slopes are needed to be maintained in a slope under varying climatic
conditions and to be considered in the slope assessment. Infltration of rainwater into the slope surface
contributes to raising the groundwater table and decreasing matric suctions. Te reduction of matric
suction in unsaturated residual soils results in a decrease in shear strength of the soil along the potential
slip surface [12]. As rainwater infltration into soil slopes is the major cause of rainfall-induced landslides,
it is important to protect the slope with preventive measures that can avert or minimize rainwater
infltration into the slope. One of the common applications of unsaturated soil mechanics to slope
stabilization is in the design and construction of a capillary barrier system (CBS) as a slope cover to
minimize rain infltration into slopes.

Numerical analyses of slope stability with and without capillary barrier system

Comprehensive numerical analyses were carried out to illustrate the stability of unsaturated soil slopes
subjected to a prolonged rainfall. Typical soil slopes with and without a slope cover CBS were compared
to study their performance under the prolonged rainfall. Te slope is composed of the residual soil from
the sedimentary Jurong Formation.

Results of numerical analysis

Figure 15 exhibits the variations in factor of safety (FS) obtained from the SLOPE/W analyses of the
original slope and the slope with CBS cover. The initial FS of the slope with CBS cover was 1.64 that was
slightly higher than 1.61 of the original slope due to the reinforcement of the CBS cover. The rate of
decrease in FS versus time was faster for the original slope, followed by the covered slope. The FS for the
original slope reached 1.0 at the end of the rainfall event while the FS for the slope with CBS cover
reached 1.36 at the end of the rainfall event. As expected, the CBS has a signifcant efect on the slope
stability during the transient conditions.