A new model for capturing void ratio-dependent unfrozen water characteristics curves

A new unfrozen water characteristics curve (UWCC) model is proposed with explicit considerations of both capillarity and adsorption. Capillarity is considered to be dominant when the freezing of soil pore water occurs at higher temperatures, whereas the effects of adsorption are pronounced at lower temperatures. The proposed model is applied to predict UWCCs of silt at different initial void ratios and clay over a wide range of temperatures. It was found that the new model can capture the effects of void ratio on the UWCC. Moreover, the new model can better predict the UWCC over a wide range of temperatures.