Dr. ZHANG Xiong from University of Alaska at Fairbanks visits IRSM on June 6. He makes an academic report about Limitations of Suction-controlled Triaxial Tests in the Characterization of Unsaturated Soil Behavior. Researcher WEI Changfu from SKLGME attends the meeting as host.

Dr. ZHANG introduces the latest progress he made in key theory and experiments of unsaturated soil mechanics. His report includes three parts. He puts forward a method based on image measurement to make precision measurement of unsaturated soil volume change at the beginning. He then points out the limitations of suction-controlled triaxial tests in the characterization of unsaturated soil behavior; Dr. ZHANG believes that undrained shear test, which could save plenty of testing time, is more appropriate to measure matrix suction at the same time. At the end of his report, Dr. ZHANG suggests stimulating constitutive model with bounding surface method; he uses the method to discuss BBM put forward by Alonso. Dr. ZHANG has further discussion with audiences after his report.

ZHANG Xiong graduated from Texas A&M University with his doctorate in civil engineering in 2004. He is now an associate professor and doctoral supervisor in University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Dr. ZHANG’s research directions include constitutive model of unsaturated soil, experimental test and numerical calculation, soil structure interaction and collapsible soil. ZHANG participated in US National Science Foundation and several key research programs of US Department of Transportation and FHWA. He has published more than 50 papers in core journals, most of them were cited by SCI and EI. ZHANG is now subeditor of Geomechanics and Engineering, An International Journal.