Geotechnical Engineering · Lesson 24 of 27

Soil Water and Capillarity

Why water climbs into soil pores against gravity, how surface tension sets the height of capillary rise hc = 4 T cos(alpha) / (gamma_w d), how Hazen's hc = C / (e D10) estimates it from grain size, how the capillary zone splits into a fully saturated fringe and a partly saturated band, and how the tension u = -gamma_w z raises the effective stress by up to gamma_w hc above the water table.

15 min read · Super Ea