New method with measurable pore-water pressure for studying local hydraulic properties of triaxial soil specimens

Measuring the pore-water pressure within a soil mass is critical for studying its hydraulic properties. Due to the granular structure characteristics of soil, the fine particles within soil are prone to migrate with the movement of water flow. The migration of fine particles may change the distribution of the pore-water pressure, thereby altering the local structure and hydraulic properties of soil. In this study, a new method with measurable local pore pressure is introduced to capture the localized response of pore structure of soil induced by the migration of fine particles. The new method meets the sealing requirements of the latex membrane with inserted pipes under stress. Thus, the pore-water pressure transducers can be arranged along the axial and radial directions of the soil specimens to measure the pore pressure at various positions, thereby helping to study the local hydraulic properties. The global and local evolution characteristics of the soil specimens during suffusion are studied using new the method in the suffusion tests. The results show that the new method has a satisfactory response. The spatial and temporal evolution of local hydraulic conductivity reveals that the migration of fine particles along seepage path exhibits significant localization and non-uniformity.