Engineering Behaviors of Soils

Mainly of the Kanto Loam

Abstract

This is a summary of collaboration conducted by 10 coworkers on engineering behaviors of clayey soils under external forces, such as deformation due to compression, softening and hardening due to remolding, contraction due to drying, changes of consistency due to airdrying, compaction, water permeability and so on.
Materials mainly used were the Kanto Loam, a kind of allophane volcanic-ash soils, as well as various kinds of non-volcanic ash soils as controls.
Previous soil mechanics were lacking in researching engineering behaviours of soils based on physical properties of soils, which seems to have led recent soil mechanics to a dead lock. With such view in mind, the authors intended to clarify engineering behaviors of soils, in terms of their physical properties, especially of pF and rheology. They wish this paper serves to make a mood of constructing a new aspect in soil engineering, combining soil mechanics with soil physics.