Measurements taken on a historical dike in the Netherlands over one year showed that interaction with the atmosphere led to oscillation of the piezometric surface of about 0.7 m. The observation raised concerns about the long-term performance of similar dikes and promoted a deeper investigation of the response of the cover layer to increasing climatic stresses. An experimental and numerical study was undertaken, which included an investigation in the laboratory of the unsaturated behavior of a scaled replica of the field cover. A sample extracted from the top clayey layer in the dike was subjected to eight drying and wetting cycles in a HYPROP™ device. Data recorded during the test provide an indication of the delayed response with depth during evaporation and infiltration. The measurements taken during this continuous dynamic process were simulated by means of a finite element discretization of the time-dependent coupled thermohydraulic response. The results of the numerical simulations are affected by the way in which the environmental loads are translated into numerical boundary conditions. Here, it was chosen to model drying considering only the transport of water vapor after equilibrium with the room atmosphere, while water in the liquid phase was added upon wetting. The simulation was able to reproduce the water mass balance exchange observed during four complete drying–wetting cycles, although the simulated drying rate was faster than the observed one. The numerical curves describing suction, the amount of vapor and temperature are identical, confirming that vapor generation and its equilibrium is control the hydraulic response of the material. Vapor generation and diffusion depend on temperature; therefore, correct characterization of the thermal properties of the soil is of paramount importance when dealing with evaporation and related non-steady equilibrium states.@en

This study characterises the effects of naturally varying organic content on the compression and shear behaviour of a marine silty-clay from the Netherlands. Index properties and mechanical properties are determined through laboratory tests, including oedometer and multistage loading-unloading triaxial stress paths. The results indicate a significant impact of the organic content on the compression response, with both the loading and reloading indexes increasing as the loss on ignition increases from 3% to 7%. Additionally, the study suggests a directional response of the compression behaviour, with the loading index increasing with the stress ratio. The influence of the organic content on shear strength appears to be less significant. No brittle response is observed during shearing, and a similar ultimate stress ratio is attained by all samples. However, a unique critical state line can only be identified for samples with similar organic content, as its intercept and slope are found to increase with increasing organic content. The experimental results from stress paths at constant stress ratio reveal an anisotropic pre-failure plastic deformation mode, which depends on the previous stress history and loading direction. This suggests that the stress–dilatancy relationship cannot be formulated as a unique function of the stress ratio. The high-quality experimental data presented in the study enlarge the database on soft organic soils in view of the development of advanced constitutive models.@en

A recent increase in frequency and severity of exceptional climatic events is of concern for the stability of natural and artificial slopes. These undergo continuous evaporation and infiltration cycles, which change the suction distribution and trigger shrinkage, swelling, cracking, and surfi-cial erosion, overall decreasing the soil strength. To assess the impact of these climatic stresses, the determination of water retention properties is a priority. Although advanced techniques have been proposed in the last few decades to this end, simpler commercially available techniques allow col-lecting data for a larger number of samples in a shorter time, thus enabling a basic description of the water retention properties for a larger database of soils. Data on two silty sands, coming from very different climatic environments in Europe, were collected with a combination of two simple commercial devices, and the results were modelled with a van Genuchten’s law. The fitted pa-rameters were found to correlate well with the amount of fines, irrespective of the different origin and composition of the two soils. Eventually, the limitation of the approach is discussed based on the results of cyclic drying–wetting tests.

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