Cavity expansion in unsaturated soils of finite radial extent

This study presents a new cavity expansion solution in unsaturated soils of finite radial extent. The solution is formulated for spherical and cylindrical cavities subjected to two boundary conditions under the drainage condition where the contribution of suction to the effective stress is constant. It is found that samples with a higher suction value are under more influence of the boundary size effect and this is more obvious with higher mean net stress and higher void ratio. Potential application of the solution in calibration chamber studies for in-situ tests in unsaturated samples is discussed.