• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.5-13
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• 2019

The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) plays an important role in determining the soil suction parameters required to predict the seepage or shear behaviors of unsaturated soils. In addition, path dependency of the SWCC affects the mechanical and hydrologic behaviors. In general, there is a disadvantage that it takes a long time to measure both the drying and wetting paths of the SWCC by a stepwise pressurization method. Thus, the continuous pressurization method as an improved testing method for the SWCC was suggested, and the testing time for two paths of the SWCC was significantly shorter than the conventional methods. For the applicability evaluation of this method, the results of the SWCC obtained by the stepwise pressurization method and the evaporation method in this study were compared to the result obtained from this method. As a result, it was found that the difference among three methods was negligible, and the testing time of the continuous pressurization method was greatly decreased. Therefore, it can be said that it is possible to quickly and accurately measure the SWCC under various conditions by the continuous pressurization method.