The pF-curve of fine-grained soils at high pore water suction

A recently developed two-component model for the relationship between saturation and pore water suction (pF-curve) is used, whose frame consists of simple, physically meaningful values. The main purpose in this paper is to describe the amount of pore water in soils at high suction. Relative air humidity may be regulated by salt solutions of defined concentration or by sulfuric acid of varying concentrations, which leads to a steady-state water content in soil specimen. In the range of high suction values, data achieved in this way are fitted by the two-component model with high accuracy. The comprehension of many phenomena such as drying and cracking, apparent overconsolidation near the surface or strength loss of cuttings in overconsolidated soils by weathering depends on the understanding of water binding behavior in soils, which is improved by this quantitative model.