Many geotechnical problems involve the presence of partially saturated soil zones, the most common case being that of capillary zones above groundwater table. These zones are usually ignored in practice, and the soil is assumed to be either fully saturated or completely dry. This simplification is in many cases conservative since it does not take into account the increase in shear strength due to partial saturation. The object of this paper is to reach a reasonable understanding and explanation of the fundamental behavior of partially saturated soil such as suction and shear strength. This can be achieved by analyzing the micromechanical forces that affect the soil particles from a theoretical point of view.
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