Non-uniform settlement of compacted earth structures caused by the deformation characteristics of unsaturated soil on wetting

The soil/water-coupled analysis for unsaturated soil mechanics with the finite element method is used to express the behavior of compacted earth structures exposed to rainfall. The constitutive model, which is proposed by Karube et al. (1996, 1997) and modified by Karube and Kawai (2001), is formulated for initial and boundary problems and coded as DACSAR-U (lizuka et al., 2000). A deep fill, which consists of compacted, unsaturated soil, was analyzed with DACSAR-U. Different patterns of rainfall were applied to deep fills in finite element simulations. As a result, non-uniform settlement of deep fill can be calculated and the magnitude of settlement of deep fills is dependent on the amount of collapse, namely, the compression due to the decrease in suction. Moreover, delayed settlement due to rainfall and an accumulation of an irreversible settlement due to cyclic rainfall was observed.