Testing the Hydromechanical Behavior of a Compacted Swelling Soil

The paper presents a study of the hydromechanical behavior of a compacted swelling soil in a range of suctions comprised between 0 and around 300 MPa. To perform this study, two kinds of suction controlled oedometers were used, one using the osmotic method and the other using the salt solution method. A detailed review of the conditions for using these two methods is given in the first part of the paper. The second section provides the results of several suction controlled oedometer tests performed in this range of suction. They show that the mechanical behavior of the tested swelling material is strongly affected by the applied suction, even in the high suction range. In addition, it appeared that the samples preparation technique significantly influenced the hydromechanical behavior of the tested soil.