DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION AND

APPLICATION OF PARTIALLY SATURATED SOIL

MODELS IN FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

by
KONSTANTINOS GEORGIADIS
Dipl.(Eng.), MSc, DIC

FEBRUARY 2003

A thesis submitted to the University of London (Imperial

College of Science, Technology and Medicine) in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the Faculty of Engineering

Abstract

The mechanical behaviour of partially saturated soils can be very different to that
of fully saturated soils. It has long been established that for such soils, changes in
suction do not have the same effect as changes in the applied stresses, and
consequently the effective stress principle is not applicable. Conventional
constitutive models, which are based on this principle, are therefore of limited
use when analysing geotechnical problems that involve the presence of partially
saturated soil zones. Although the existing constitutive models for partially
saturated soils can reproduce important features of the behaviour of such soils,
such as collapse upon wetting, they are less advanced than the conventional fully
saturated soil models, and therefore there is much room for improvement. In
addition, only a limited number of applications of such models to boundary value
problems has been performed in the past. The performance of partially saturated
soil models and more importantly the influence of partial soil saturation on the
behaviour of geotechnical structures has therefore not been well established.
This thesis presents two new generalised constitutive models for partially and
fully saturated soils and their implementation into the Imperial College Finite
Element Program (ICFEP). The implementation and performance of the models
is validated through a series of single element analyses and the results are
compared to analytical solutions and experimental data. Also presented in this
thesis is a series of finite element analyses of shallow and deep foundations.
These analyses highlight facets of partially saturated behaviour important for
engineering problems and more specifically show the effect of partial soil
saturation and of fluctuations of the ground water table on the behaviour of
footings and piles.

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to thank my supervisors Prof. D. M. Potts and Dr L.

Zdravkovic for their guidance, encouragement and assistance throughout the
period of this work.
The work described in this thesis was funded by the Greek State Scholarships
Foundation. Their support is gratefully acknowledged.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the College staff for their help and
support and especially to Dr M. Coop for his assistance and discussions on issues
presented in this thesis.
Many thanks are due to all my colleagues in the section for their contribution in
numerous ways and particularly to my friends Angeliki, Felix, Niki, Reinaldo
and Stuart.
Finally I would like to thank my parents for their support, encouragement and
understanding without which I would not have managed to complete this thesis.