Unsaturated Soils / Sols Non Satures

The range of geotechnical probems involving unsaturated soil is very wide. Often these problems are associated with constuction in arid and tropical zones in which extensive areas are covered by collapsible or expansive unsaturated soils. In virtually any region geotechnical engineers face problems with fills, embankments and earth dams related to a very widespread class of unsaturated soils: compacted soil. More recently the use of compacted clays as barriers for environmental protection has enlarged even further the scope of unsaturated soil mechanics. Important contributions and significant advances are reported in several areas: fundamental understanding and constitutive modelling; coupled formulations for transport and deformation problems; new experimental data obtained through suction-controlled experiments; measurement of soil suction and analysis of case records involving compacted, swelling and collapsing soils.