Calibration of an unsaturated air–water–soil model

A theoretical model of unsaturated soil is presented. It takes into account the three main components of the soil: the air; the water; and the soil particles. It uses the principle of effective stress on four different domains: unsaturated with the air in continuous phase (Domain D1), unsaturated with the air occluded in contact with the particles of soil (Domain D2), unsaturated with air bubbles (Domain D3), and saturated with the air dissolved into the water (Domain D4). The model is validated on isotropic compression tests and on oedometer tests. The determination of the parameters of the unsaturated model is explained and the mean values of the parameters are presented.