Abstract: Fredlund SWCC device can apply matric suctions from zero up to 1 500 kPa.After measuring the water contents of the corresponding suction and fitting the data with MATLAB,the soil-water characteristic curve(SWCC) is obtained.Applying the SWCC in numerical simulation software,the settlement curve of ground surface is obtained considering groundwater.When groundwater is not considered,another settlement curve of ground surface is obtioned by numerical simulation.Contrasting the two curves with the settlement curve of Peck formula for reference,the settlement curve of ground surface considering groundwater is closer to the measured curve.Therefore,the reliability and applicability of this method are verified.