Advancement of Unsaturated Soils Theory into the Undergraduate Civil Engineering Curriculum

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Most of our physical infrastructure is built on unsaturated soils, yet for both technical and historical reasons, educators continue to reserve the teaching of unsaturated soil mechanics to the graduate level curriculum. Billions of dollars are at risk annually from moisture-sensitive soil damage to infrastructure. At the other extreme, billions of dollars are wasted annually due to overly conservative structures that are designed based on an assumption of saturated soil properties. Improving student understanding of unsaturated soil behavior could result in large cost savings in both the public and private sectors. In addition, a recent survey indicates that a majority of geotechnical faculty think that unsaturated soils mechanics should be introduced at the undergraduate level. Students' depth of understanding of soils as an engineering material would be greatly enhanced via introduction of geotechnical principles for unsaturated conditions, with the saturated soil case being presented as a subset of the broader theory. This project involves developing student-centered lecture and laboratory modules on the basic principles of unsaturated soils theory and the application of these principles to problems of movement of structural foundation systems. The modules emphasize solving geo-hazard problems of collapsible and expansive soils. Emerging geotechnical challenges in the energy sector are used as additional motivational examples. These modules are being pilot-tested on students at seven universities, with a large and diverse set of students to ensure that the modules are not biased toward a particular subset of students.