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    10 views11 pages

    Soil Mechanics Principles For Highway Engineering in Arid Regions

    Uploaded by

    kitesguardians
    ghj

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    Soil Mechanics Principles for Highway Engineering in Arid Regions D. G. FREDLUND AND H. RAHARDJO- Highway construction is commonly required In arid regions. Solls Im these regions are generally unsaturated and are characterized by highly negative pore-water pressures. An ‘extension of saturated soll mechanics principles is required to fully understand their behavior and to perform the necessary analyses for engineering purposes. In recent years there has been a rapid Increase In understanding of ihe behavior of ‘unsaturated solls. Conventional equations for shear strength, volume change, and seepage have been extended to embrace ‘unsaturated solls. Presented in this paper is a summary of unsaturated soll principles and theories particularly relevant to higheray design in arid regions. The application of these theorles to highsray engineering is outlined. In addition, sev- ‘eral techniques commonly used to measure soll suction or negative pore-water pressure are discussed. The measurement of soll suction Is central to applying unsaturated soll theories. Signiicant areas of the earth's surface are classified as arid zones. The annual evaporation fom the ground surface in these regions exceeds the annual precipitation. Figure 1 shows the climatic clasificaion ofthe extremely aid arid, and semiarid seas of the world. Meigs (1) used the Thorthwaite moisture indox to map these zones. He excluded the cold deserts. Re- gions with a Thomthwaite index between 20 and ~40 are classified as semiarid areas. A Thomihwaite index less than 40 indicate arid areas, About 33 percent of the eanth’s surface is considered arid and semiarid (2). The distribution of ex- tremely arid, aid, and semiarid areas in North America is given in Figure 2 (1). These cover much of the area bounded by the Gulf of Mexico inthe south to Canada in the north, and over to the west coast. ‘Arid and semiarid areas usually have a deep groundwater table, Soils located above the water table have negative pore- water pressures. The soils are generally unsaturated because of, ‘excessive evaporation and evapotranspiation. Climate changes highly influence the water content ofthe sol in the proximity ‘of the ground surface. When the soil is wetted, the pore-water pressures increase, tending towards positive values. As a result, changes occur in the volume and shear strength of the soi. Many soils exhibit exxeme swelling or expansion when wet- ted, Other soils show a significant loss of shear strength upon. weting. Changes in the negative pore-water pressures associ- ated with heavy rainfalls are the cause of numerous slope failures. Reductions in the bearing capacity and resilient mod- ulus of soils are also associated with increases in the negative pore-water pressure. These phenomena indiate the important Department of Civil Engineering, University of Saskaichewan, Sask toon, Saskaichewan STN OWO, Canada, Arid and Semiarid Areas Transportation Research Board National Research Council role of negative pore-water pressures in controlling the me- chanical behavior of unsaturated soi ‘When the degree of saruration of a soil is greater than approximately 85 percent, saturated soil mechanics principles ‘can be applied with reasonable success provided the negative pore-water pressures can be measured. However, when the egree of saturation is less than about 85 percent, it becomes ‘necessary to extend saturated soil mechanics principles to em- brace unsanurated soils. Soils used in the construction of high- ‘ways fall into this latter category, particularly in arid areas. ‘Therefore, itis important that unsaturated soil mechanics be incorporated into engineering associated with highway design. STRESS STATE VARIABLES ‘The shear strength and volume change behavior of an unsati- rated soil can best be described in terms of two independent ‘sess state variables, namely (6 ~ u,) and (u, ~ u,) (3). The terms (6 ~ u,) and (u, ~ u,) are referred to as net normal stress and matrie suction, respectively, where © = total normal stress, u, = pore-sir pressure, and uy = pore-water pressure. ‘A.complete description of the stress state can be represented by two independent stress tensors. @,- 4) wy we ™ (,- 4) a te wy @-4]| o and ,- 4) o o ° 4) o ° ° wm} @ where oy, 9, 0, equal total normal stress in the x. sedirections, respectively; and Tye Se Tyee Th Fs shear stresses, and Soil Mechanics Considerations in FIGURE 2 Extremely arid, arid, and semiarid areas of North America (1). Fradind and Raha ‘The stress state variables can be shown to have smooth transition when going from an unsaturated soil condition to a saturated soil condition. As the degree of saturation approaches. 100 pereent, the pore-water pressure approaches the pore-tir "The matric suction term goes to zero. The net normal sess reverts to (6 — u,). The term, (6 ~ u,), is commonly referred to as effective suess in saturated soil mechanics. “The matric suction of soi isa function of its water content. ‘The relationship is referred to as the soil-water characteristic, curve, The water content in the soil is predominantly influ- ‘enced by the climatic environment. Therefore, the average ‘matric suction in a region can be roughly correlated to the ‘Thorathwaite moisture index. Both values become a reflection of the environment. In extremely arid, arid, and semiarid re- ‘ns, the relative humidity in the soil pores can drop to as low 4 30 to 40 percent (Blight, unpublished). This range of aridity ‘corresponds to soil matric suctions as high as 165 MPa. In this ‘environment, the role of the matric suction generally becomes ‘more important than the role ofthe net normal stress for many practical problems. MEASUREMENT OF SOIL SUCTION From a thermodynamic standpoint, the total suction of a soil, consists of two components, namely matric suction and o8- otic suction. VEG mote eo where y equals total suction and x equals osmotic suction. Several devices commonly used for méasuring soil suction and their range of measurement are listed in Table 1. Tensiome- ters direcly measure the negative pore-water pressures. They ‘consist of a porous ceramic, high air entry cup connected to pressure measuring device. The entire device is filled with TABLE 1_ DEVICES FOR MEASURING SUCTION 3 desired water. The water in the teasiometer comes to equi- {irium with the pore water in the soil during a measurement. Tathe field the pore-ar pressure is usually amnospherc (i. is equal tO) Ia this ease, the matric suction is numerically equal tothe absolute negative pore-water pressure. Therefore, the tensiometer reading is equivalent to the matric suction. Teasiometers are limited to measuring pore-water pressures ‘greater than approximately -60 kPa and &) Resilient wodutes = ff (03 ~ Shear strength Uitimete daring elty of clay Constitative equations for Ky loadings Flow tas for wet By ahy/ay (arey"s 1a Ryn log eafay? = 0 ax? + aPayiay? = 0 6 av ao as aa as) (3) and, Ee lay arly = agielay— ey) eet s (aya) tan 8 + (ou) tan 8 7) ere sty a) tan ot o cea «a0 dlgy ~ 4) + ag dt - an dv = by dlay — 4) + dg a6 ay =O, = ap anor ae Ryn ys s/o on by Paya? + (anylay) aaylay = 0 a0 Teocdinensional: 24, rou? by atmy/de? > (aky/2zI0/ 8 + 2, aay/ay? + (aK/ay) an/dy = 0 an 110,000 { 100,000} 20,000} a 60,009 5 J § 40,000) RESILIENT MODULUS, E, (APO) ° 20040060000 MATRIC SUCTION, (ue-Us) (KPa) FIGURE 5 Influence of matric suction and deviator stress on the resillent modulus (13). ‘measured experimentally (Figure 7). The value for 6” is gener- ally Tess than 6. Subility analyses for a saturated-unsarurated soil embank- ‘meat can be performed using Equation 7 t0 define the shear strength of the soil. The factor of safery equations will be applicable to both te saturated and unsarrated zones. For tbe ‘unsaturated zone, the cobesion isa function of matric suction Equation 8). For the saturated zone, the matric suction goes to zero and the cohesion reduces tothe effective cobesioninter- ‘cept, Dlustated in Figure 8 isthe effect of matric suction ox increasing the stability of «simple slope. The increase in factor of safety due to sol suction has been demonstrated for unsan- ‘ated soil slopes in Hong Kong (15) and other regions (16). r SHEAR STRENGTH, TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD 1137 ‘The ultimate bearing capacity of an unsaturated clay sub- sgrade can be computed from Equation 10. The value of cohe- sion may be obtained from an unconfined compression test. ‘The measured cohesion is a function of matric suction a failure (Equation 8). Excessive water infiltration into the subgrade soil ccan reduce the matric suction. This results in reduction in shear strength that may, in tum, produce a subgrade failure. An ‘understanding of unsaturated soil behavior is important in rela- tion to the application of bearing capacity formulations in highway engineering. VOLUME CHANGE ‘Acchange in the stress state ofa soil produces a volume change. Jn a sarurted sol, an effective stress increase resulis in sete- ‘ment. In an unsaturated soil, a change in either the net normal sswess oF the matric suction can cause a volume change. However, heaves or settlements in unseturated soils are most ‘commonly caused by changes in matric suction. A net normal sess change of 10 to 1000 kPa commonly results from the ‘constriction of light-to-heavy structures. On the other hand, &

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