Measurement of Hydraulic Properties of Soils used for Road Construction under Saturated and Unsaturated Conditions

Abstract

Road structures are more often found in unsaturated conditions. Despite this, at present there is a limited volume of literature on the hydraulic properties of soils used for road construction evaluated under unsaturated conditions. In this context, this paper presents the characterization and measurement of the hydraulic properties of different soils used for road construction in the city of Santander, Northern Spain. The soils were extracted from a road structure. The hydraulic properties of soils have been measured under saturated and unsaturated conditions, in order to determine the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and the Soil Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC), according to the van Genuchten model of four-parameter. Finally, the procedures followed in this particular study case can give guidelines for the determination of the hydraulic parameters of soils used for road construction, especially when unsaturated conditions needs to be take into account. Besides, the hydraulic parameters obtained with the described methods can be effectively used for modeling the water flow and contaminants through road structures using FEM-based numerical simulation