Host: The Japanese Geotechnical Society
Suction plays a key role in the performance of sand beaches. The state of suction in a given sand beach may depend on the way in which the unsaturated granular soil responds to complex environmental forcing such as solar radiation, precipitation, tides, waves and groundwater table fluctuations. To investigate the variations of suction with heat and moisture transfer in unsaturated sands, we conducted a series of experiments including (a) heating tests following precipitation; (b) heating tests on sample with groundwater levels controlled. The sand deposits were subjected to heating by an overhead heat lamp to simulate solar radiation. Changes in soil temperatures, volumetric water contents and suctions were measured.
