Principles of Physical Modelling of Unsaturated Soils
Résumé
Centrifuge modelling has been widely used to simulate the performance of a variety of geotechnical works, most of them focusing on saturated clays or dry sands. On the other hand, the performance of some geotechnical works depends on the behaviour of shallow layers in the soil deposit where it is frequently unsaturated. Centrifuge modelling could be a powerful tool to study the performance of shallow geotechnical works. However all the experimental complexities related to unsaturated soils, which are well known in laboratory, increase in the centrifuge. This paper presents some important aspects to be considered when using centrifuge technology to involving unsaturated soils. These aspects include: scaling laws, soil preparation, instrumentation and atmospheric actuators. Also some successful experiences are presented. Finally limitations and challenges are presented as well as some ideas to improve the practice of centrifuge modelling on unsaturated soils.