Determination of Soil-Water Characteristic Curves of Unsaturated Sandy Soils Using Membrane Filter with Stainless Wire Mesh

Soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is an important soil function in an unsaturated soil mechanics field for design and analyses of any unsaturated earth structures. Determination of SWCC is not easy and more so time consuming. Generally, ceramic disc with high air-entry value has been used in the pressure plate apparatus for this purpose by many people. Now-a-days membrane filter is being used as a suitable alternative to ceramic disc. However, experience shows, it has disadvantage of breakage after one time use especially with coarse grain soils (sandy soils). In this study, membrane filter with stainless wire mesh was used to solve this problem and the SWWC was compared with the results obtained without wire mesh. Results showed that membrane filter with stainless wire mesh can be used to determine the SWCC for coarse grain soils.