Estimating soil-water characteristic curve based on soil type and best-fitting regressions derived from a simplified method using Aburra Valley dataset

National University of Colombia, School of mines, Geotechnical Research Group, Medellín

^* Corresponding author: jramosr@unal.edu.co

Abstract

In unsaturated soil mechanics, many attempts have been made to estimate the SWCC based on soil texture and grain-size distribution. This paper proposes a simplified method to estimate the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) for both coarse and fine-grained soils using SWCC data and machine learning computer code in the Aburra Valley. Fredlund and Xing parameters has been used to estimate the SWCC correlations. Soil samples collected from field survey were subjected to laboratory testing, SWCCs were estimated using filter paper method. Each SWCC data set from Aburra Valley was fitted with Fredlund and Xing curve using multiple regression analysis, correlations were derived for those four parameters based on predictors derived from machine learning. The proposed method gives a good estimation and low residual errors of the SWCC.