Abstract
During the determination of the main drying curve, the soil is subjected to
high suctions, which induce important volumetric deformations. These volumetric
deformations modify the pore size distribution of the sample affecting both the drying
and the wetting branch of the retention curves. Although most deformation occurs at
drying, this branch is only slightly affected by soil deformation. In contrast, the
wetting branch shows important shifting when volume change is considered. A
porous-solid model based on the grain and pore size distributions of the soil is coupled
with a mechanical model to simulate the soil-water retention curves while the material
is deforming.