Seepage in unsaturated soils and its application to earth dams

The purposes of the project are to study the mechanical properties of unsaturated soils and to mathematically describe the seepage behaviour of water and gas and its interaction with deformable soils based on a continuum approach. Based on the theoretical and experimental findings suitable constitutive models should be chosen, implemented into a finite element code, calibrated and applied to practical problems like earth dams. The results obtained from the numerical simulations for both unsaturated soil and saturated soil should also be compared with the data in laboratory tests and in situ measurements.