Hydromechanical behaviour of a compacted swelling soil under very high suctions

This paper presents a study performed on a compacted swelling material in the range of suctions comprised between 8.5 and 287.9 MPa. Two series of tests were carried out with suction controlled oedometers. The aim of the first series was to study the compressibility as a function of suction. It showed that the apparent preconsolidation pressure and the plastic compression line are greatly affected by the applied suctions. The other series of tests highlighted the influence of complex hydromechanical paths on the compressibility of the studied material that appeared to be greatly influenced by the stress path followed.