Grace E.

Perez
BSCE – 4A

Exercise 1
Question: Why excessive swelling capacity is dangerous for structures?

By the word swelling, in medical field we can say that it’s similar to inflammation.
It is the state of one’s body part that expands due to infections and other contributing
factors but once treated goes back to its normal state. On the other hand, I think swelling
capacity in the soil is a characteristic wherein it expands due to some factors like water,
moist and weather temperatures. This characteristic is dangerous for structures because
it will contribute to the overall capacity of the structure to standstill and to be always in
equilibrium. Structures are oftentimes built above the soil and that soil must be compacted
and as much as possible it should only have little to no behavior of expansion. Excessive
swelling attributes like that of clay also has excessive shrinking attribute as a counterpart
and both of them is dangerous for structures. These characteristics will also cost building
owners lots of money if not treated regularly or worse it will cost them the whole structure
and worst-case scenario it will cost lives.