• DOI:10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001071
• Corpus ID: 129039712

Hysteresis and Uncertainty in Soil Water-Retention Curve Parameters

@article{Likos2014HysteresisAU,
  title={Hysteresis and Uncertainty in Soil Water-Retention Curve Parameters},
  author={William J. Likos and Ning Lu and Jonathan W. Godt},
  journal={Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering},
  year={2014},
  volume={140},
  pages={04013050}
}

• W. Likos, N. Lu, J. Godt
• Published 1 April 2014
• Environmental Science
• Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering

AbstractAccurate estimates of soil hydraulic parameters representing wetting and drying paths are required for predicting hydraulic and mechanical responses in a large number of applications. A comprehensive suite of laboratory experiments was conducted to measure hysteretic soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs) representing a wide range of soil types. Results were used to quantitatively assess differences and uncertainty in three simplifications frequently adopted to estimate wetting-path SWCC parameters from more easily measured drying curves. They are the following: (1) αw=2αd, (2) nw=nd, and (3) θsw=θsd, where α, n, and θs are fitting parameters entering van Genuchten’s commonly adopted SWCC model, and the superscripts w and d indicate wetting and drying paths, respectively. The average ratio αw/αd for the data set was 2.24±1.25. Nominally cohesive soils had a lower αw/αd ratio (1.73±0.94) than nominally cohesionless soils (3.14±1.27). The average nw/nd ratio was 1.01±0.11 with no significant depen...