Unsaturated Soil Engineering Practice

Unsaturated Soil Engineering Practice Synopsis

This collection of papers presented at the sessions on ""Unsaturated Soil Engineering Practice"" held during the First National Conference of the ASCE Geo-Institute at the Utah State University in Logan, Utah from July 16-19, 1997. The significance of unsaturated soils in geotechnical engineering practice is great. The vast majority of the infrastructure is founded on and in unsaturated soil deposits. Unsaturated soil foundation problems are commonly associated with moisture-sensitive soils, wherein soils exhibit significant volume change and/or strength reduction upon wetting and represent a common geotechnical concern in both arid and humid climates. These papers address recent practice, experience, and advances in unsaturated soils engineering. The magnitude of unsaturated soil concerns is clearly identified through the diversity of topics presented. Rational, unified approaches for dealing with these unsaturated soil problems have recently emerged, providing the geotechnical engineer with tools of analysis for these problems.