The microporosity structure of soil provides important information in understanding the shear strength, compressibility, water-retention ability, and hydraulic conductivity of soils. It is a soil characteristic that depends on sample preparation method and wetting–drying history. A comprehensive study of the microporosity structure of a lean clay with sand was conducted in this research to investigate variations of the microporosity structure during compaction, saturation, and drying processes. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the microporosity structure of soil sample surfaces. Mercury intrusion porosimetry was used to measure the microporosity structure quantitatively by showing the relationship between cumulative pore volumes and pore radius. The experimental results show that a dual-porosity structure (i.e., interaggregate pores and intra-aggregate pores) forms during the compaction process. The interaggregate pores are compressible and the associated volume is closely related to the final void ratio of the compacted sample. Changes to interaggregate pores is dominant during compaction, but changes to intra-aggregate pores is dominant during saturation and drying. Based on the experimental results, a dual-porosity structure model was developed by relating the pore-size distribution to the void ratio. Consequently, the pore-size distribution at any void ratio can be predicted.

Cracks are widely present in natural and engineered soils. As water infiltration into a cracked soil often starts from unsaturated conditions, the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and permeability function for the cracked soil are required when conducting seepage analysis. This paper presents a method to predict the SWCC and permeability function for cracked soil considering crack volume changes during drying–wetting processes. The cracked soil is viewed as an overlapping continuum of a crack network system and a soil matrix system. The pore-size distributions for the two pore systems at a particular state can be determined and used to estimate the SWCCs and permeability functions. The estimated SWCCs and permeability functions for the two pore systems can be combined to give the SWCC and the permeability function for the cracked soil at that state. Then, the SWCC and permeability function for the cracked soil at different states along a crack development path can be obtained and combined to give the SWCC or permeability function for the cracked soil considering crack volume changes. Examples are presented to illustrate the prediction of the SWCCs and permeability functions for a cracked soil along five crack development paths.

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