bg. Mou Professor, P.C-8.F.N., Natl. U. of Cordoba, Argentina J. ROCA Ad}. Profs, F.C.E:F.N.; Natl. U. of Cordoba‘ Argentina I TERZARIOL Ad}. Prof.,P:C.E.P.N., Natl. U. of Cordoba, Argentina Loess Soils: Engineering Practice in Argentina b Trdichiond Lorfowus Repiawol Aol, -Uniy dh Pohuy Belyng Lima - 1988 synopsis Loess soils cover an important rea of Argentina. They are macroporous forma— tions with particles originated mainly from pyroclastic deposits. They can be classified in truly and conditionally collapsible according with their degree of co\lapaibility: They also have high erosion potential due to deflecculation of their particles. Ths paper outlines ehe engineering practice applied for solving those problems in urban ond rural areas. wrropucrron Regional setting An important area of Argentina is covered by The less area is shown in the map (fig. 11 looss soils, as it was recognized by several european scientists who explored the country last century. Their studies were related mainly with morphology and stratigraphy They were able to formulate theories about the ge- esis by comparison with loess arean of Euro- be. By the beginning of the century a general Givision of the formation was established with the identification of loess and silts (rrengueili, 1925). Although the properties of these soils were Mot well understood, the engineering oxpe- Fiencies on sone facilities were taken into account in the classic book written by Schei- aig (1934). The genesis of the soil particles was inves- tigated afterwards. During the late Andean orogenic phases there were inportent volcanic eruptions in the western part of the country. Those pyroclastic deposits were tho source Of voleanic glass, the principal component of the argentine oes. These particles and o- thers derives from decomposition of the base- Bent rocks were carried by wind and deposited re y on the plains. Sone of thom suftered cycles ‘nga Of transportation and deposition producing i Variations in the soil deposite(teruggi, 1357) Further studies increased the mineralogic knowledge and divided the formation by their elay minerals (Gonzalez Sonorino, 1365). These genetic characteristics have important geotechnical consequences. and were recognized by engineors (Bolognesi and Moretto, 1957). |, Near the Buenos Aires area, the soi} oy (PPP PPO PIF PFI IP PIIIGIIIIGOCIRN were Fedeposited and precoseslidated Byrds Ssceation, ‘they are well know; butishels Properties ore out of the gcope of this paper? in the central pare of the'comntry, the loess formations has been stulied atthe’ Nations] University of Cordoba since the sixties. .« The understanding of the loess behavior has lod to an improvement of the engineoring Practice to avoid the problens they can pre- \ pees ON ee| |e 9 a Leb. MObb Rig. ROCCA RIEL TERZARIOL Professor, F.c. 2a}. Prof, F-C.E. It is closely related with the"pampean forma- tion". Ae a matter of fact, during many years gealogists considered the whole formation as Toess sediments. For this reason the area is less extensive than the proposed by Scheidig and later by Teruggi. As it has been pre- ‘ously noted there is a zone in the cant where the original loess structure is comple- tely lost. Comparing with the total area of the country, the loess zones are between 25- to 30%, that means about 800,000 sqkm. ‘The average thickness is 30 meters with a naximule of about 60 meters. ‘The regional knowledge is still not honoge- neous due to the different degree of develop- ment. The best known areas are Cordoba and Santa Fe provinces in the central part of the country. GEOTECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS Be yeve iatey payee Ge Ges sclsiiniaindtar e@ @ @ 6 eo e @ 2 3 o € 8 5 S } oO 3 @G to those found in other regions of the world. ‘They are macroporous, light yellow or brown in color, sometimes with a reddish or gray tinge, and they do not have stratification. ‘Their natural slope is very steep and they. present vertical root holes that give them high vertical hydraulic conductivity. ‘The principal minerals in the composition are volcanic glass,quartz,plagioclases and cla In the western’areas, illite is predominant while in the eastern zone, mainly montmori- Monite. there is calcium carbonate in form of concretions and hardpan layers, and on comminuted particles distributed in the mass. ‘The granulonetric distribution is dominated by the silt fraction that represents about 60 - 60 ¥. Dry unit weight varies between 10.5 and 14.0 KN/cu.m. Using the plasticity chart, these soils fail in the ML and CL-ML Both shear parameters, cohesion and angle of internal friction, depend largely on the {GQ moisture content of the sample when the de- termination is nade (Varde et al, 1970). It has been distinguished primary and secon- Gary loess taking into consideration the geo- logic genesis. From the engineering point of view it is necessary to make a differentia tion according the degree of collapsipility. ‘The association between primary and collapsi- ble is not s0 undoubted and it could be only taken as a rough approximation. In order to recognize the susceptibility to collapse it has been several attempts. Those related with index properties like unit weight, Atterberg limits,ete had been tested and they are not applicable for argentine loess due to the conservatism of the result; in most cases the output is collapsible (Re- @olfi ct a1, 1986). For this reason it is re. connended to use other test. ‘the double ocdo- meter test (Jenning and Knight, 1956) has been Used reducing the time for incteasing the loads. ‘The response of the soil to thom is very quickly and after less than 10 minutes Of load application the deformations are con- pleted. £.F.N., Natl. U. Of Cordoba, Argontina AG}. PEE, FLC.E.F.N., Natl. U. of Cordoba, Argentina B.P.N., Natl. U. of Cordoba, Argentina one important Reginatto and use different Their results solute in the Amprovement as been done by ‘. Fereere (1973) who started vo @| Cypes of ‘waver in the test. UiBicatea the sntiuence of the @ collapse behavior. The following parancters acc used to deterni-@] he the susceptibility to collapse: stress e Paq 4. Colinpse prassure for soll at nature moisture content gg + collapse pressure for saturated soil @ P+ total vertical pressure acting on the toll ata given level e Pg ond:Pzg are determined trom bodewatar Seong silentnibie eee ea In general, for any kind of soils in natural @ Hate’ tab Fy. For collapsible sotis, however g cedsneter test Fanulta’indicata’ in many cased Peacg. When this occurs, the soil will not @ poert its own woight upon saturation, ond large settlements will take place even if no external forces are acting. COEFF OF coLapsieiuTy : c= s=Po Rin- Po Fig. 2. Ocdonetric tests on locss samples (Reginatto et al.,1873) It is defined the coefficient of collapsibili: ty as an index of the form: beeeaeeeaaaananaaeeORIPIGGVVTIIVRIVIOO. Leb. MOLL Professor, RIg! Rocca. na}. Prot RIB: TERZARIOL Ad}. Prof When C<0 the soil is truly collapsible. Lar ge settloments will take place upon satura Bion even if no external loads are acting. When 0 Pes allowable stress pressure roverburden pressure Peg tyleld stress at saturated state For important structures like canals, pover transmittion lines,ete, in-situ test are re- commended, although they are expensive. U. of Cordoba, argentina Ul Of Cordoba, Argentina UL Of Cordoba, Argentina Wer YIELD STRESS ACTUALS CURVES FOR SATURATED TEST ; mies oH gr) Determination of the yield pressure (nedo1fi, 1980) ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS Foundations of buildings ‘The thickness of the loess strata in major cities like Cordoba varies between 10 to 25 moters. Usually, water table is located at Greater depth. In a generalized profile there are a few meters of non-self-subsident loess near the surface, several meters of self-sub- Sident loess in the middle zone, and redepo- Sited loos and silts in the lover position Of the strata, Sometimes there are disconti— uous layers of cemented loess (numed toscal ‘This idealized protile has changes in the nature and in the thickness. Exploration for determining the properties is done using open pits and drilled holes. Only samples taken from open pits preserve the loess structure and can be used for ob- taining reliable result in laboratory tests. The use of SPT in these soils can led to big errors in the estimation of the shear proper- ties. In dry state they have high resistance to penetration while upon wetting this could be largely reduced (Reginatto, 1971). ‘The common practice for foundation of tall buildings is to bypass these loess layers u- sing piles and piers that transfer the loads to deeper and stable layers through their ones. For this reason the knoviedge required for design is related with the skin friction of the pile. In dry state it is difficult to drive plies and it is common to drill a small hole as a guide and for reducing the vibra- tions during the hammering.=, Professor, F.C & naj. Prof, F.C.EF, . Aa}. Prof, P.ClE.F.N.;Natl. Belled piers are frequently made because the Soils are easy to excavate and stand during lon} tine. This solution usually is, the cheapest and it can be done by hand. Special care is taken for avoiding dry skin } fiction because it absorba an important part i Of the loads. In wet state a sudden transfer Of then to the end produces deformations that can be higher than the maximum tolerated by the facility. On the other hand, skin fric~ tion has to be taken into account as a nega- tive friction force in case of collapse of a Self-subsident layer. In-situ saturated test has shown that the va- lucs calculated using undrained resistance in saturated triaxial are conservative. In the western part of the country seismic Beasures are proscribed by the seismic code. For tall buildings and important facilities there are design spectra for these soils with the shape shown in fig. 5. ‘The parameters are SL retion of the seismic zone. rt is important ko note that these soils are considered dyna~ mically stable if the water table is very deep. GEOG. AREA WITH HIGH SEISMICITY $SOCCOOe PSEUDOACCELERATION C% OF G? So GEOG. AREA WITH LOW SEISMICITY G@82S0 c y € (from INPRES-CIRSOC 103. Arg.Code) Loma o ie periov sees le Hy Pig.5 Seismic design spectra | Improvement of the loess soils for founda - tions is not common. However, there have been few cases of thermal stabilization for exis- ting structures that suffered differential settlenents (Varde et al,1970). In general, their cost had resulted more expensive than conventional underpinning. ) For Light buildings and houses, test on prote “types done in the late sixties demonstrated J that it is not recommended to use conventio- nally shallow foundation or piles floating in &3 the truly collapsible loess mass. (Moll ct al 1970). Rupture of main water or sevage con- duit can produce big demage in the houses duc NIVNAEL: UL Of Cordoba, Argentina E.N. Natl. U. of Cordoba, Argentina 4 ul of Cordoba, Argentina to differential settlements. On the other hand, deep foundations are ox- tromely expensive’ in the ease of @ thick la- yor of loess (about 20 meters). Sometimes for low cost houses that suffer ga~ inge, repairs are very costly in relationship to the value of the house and that creates. a serious social problem to the owner, ‘the Less expensive solution is to adopt mea sures to avoid infiltration of water to the foundation soil. They consist on providing sidewalk around the building, the use of pi- pes placed in concrate protective canals, to but Flexible joint Cor connections, fmong o- thers. The regular inspection of the sanitary network is highly recommended. An seismic areas, masonry walis are reintor- ced with beams ahd colunns and they can ab~ sorb snall settlements. ie Other economic alternative is the use of piers of plastic soil-cement. This ise vis~ Cous mixture of the loess soil with 8 to 12 ¥ Of cenent that is placed on the foundation hole’ (60 to 80 cm diameter) without compac- tion but with vibration. ‘this solution has been tested up to 120 tn. although is used up to 30-40 tn. Some test Gone on this type of pier are shown in fig 6. ‘The resultant material is not too rigid but by far less deformable than the surrounding soil. ny erent mame] Za 2 a 7 < © * 0 AXIAL DISPLACEMENTS du Fie HEAD PILE Pig.6 Load test on plastic soil-cement pier RORARRARARRAHNKRASKSHRAHARHRAAALARAAAAAAAAALALAAARHAAA”peer oore Problons in rural areas Loess soils cover important parts of the big Plains of the Argentina, known as "panpas™. In the western region of the loces aren there has been several cases of hydraulic erosion with the formation of tunnels and dcep gu Llies. ‘The phenonerion takes place in very flat areas where the regional gradient is less than 1 degree. The climate is quite arid but all the rains tends to be concentrated in Sone of the gullies have ingortant dimensions Like 30 to 40 meters width, up to 20 meters soep and with length of several kilometers ‘Those figures are big enough to destroy any facility that they intereept,like farms, ca nals, roads, power transmittion Lines, cte. The gullies appear after the collapse of the Foof on an internal erosion process or they can begin with the formation of Linear frac- tures in the ground (Riggi, 1966). Chemical and erosion tests have shown the pre- sence of a deflocculation process that produ= ces the dispersion of the clay particles and the ‘slowly transportation of then (Reginatto and Ferrero, 1974). Once they have started, they grow due to the erosion action of superficial water. At present the nore rational solution invol- ves the use of conventional methods for sur~ face drainage of pluvial water. It is important to have a good investigation Of the regional drainage of the water. With this background canals big enough to collect their basin areas are planned. In the areas where the gullies already exist efforts are made to avoid the growing. Small dans (3 to 8 meters high) are built to create Feservoir areas for regulating and delaying the rainwash water. Tf the systen works well, the gully will act as a canal and it will not be eroded by the water that flows inside, These system is affordable but maintenance is quite important, Foundation of hydraulic structures In the country there are several hydraulic facilities placed in the loess area. The most Amportant is Rio Hondo dam which was built 20 years ago and it has been satistactory work- Ang since thon (Moretto, 1984), Part of its foundation was built on’ retransported silts originated from loess that were collapsible upon wetting. After a program of in-situ test hydrovompaction was used. There are several canals crossing’ the area and some cases of failure due to tht rupture, Of the Lining foundation. Th An interesting case is Los Sauces lifigat {on canal that was designed including ponding as” a construction method. In spite of that néa- Sure only some areas that had been: previously irrigated as farm land behaved well, while other parts suffered important damage’ (Guri and Vega, 1965). One of the best studied case 1s Los Holinos~ Cordoba canal that was badly danaged before entering on scrvice (Moll et al, 1919). ‘The ca- nal vas intercepted by sono gullies. Let. MOLL Professor, F.C.E.P.N., Natl. U. Rio! ocean Aaj. Prof. PLC:E-F-N., Natl. U, RIE. TERZARIOL Ad}.Prof., FLCLECPIN., Natl. U. 0f Cordoba, Argentina Sf Cordoba; Argentina Of Cordoba;argentina For this reason several methods of improve- ment were tested. Among the more successful tere heavy tamping and blasting that produ- Ged equivalent results. Also, good pertorman- ce was observed using lime-loess and coment~ loess admixtures to replace the excavated natural loess soil taken from the foundation. Those nethods are useful to manage the pro blems related with the water running inte the canal. But, it is very difficult to con- trol the gully 'action or the internal ero- sion that could affect the loess mass and intercept the canal. In general, the conventional solution of pre-ponding the trace of the future canal is always recomended, This action can produce the collapse of the self-subsident loss. and has to be supplenented with other measure to induce extra compaction of the soil. Linear structures ‘ ‘These types of facilities can be continuous Like a water or gas conduit and roads, oF. punctual Like power transmittion lines held By towers. in all the cases the identification of the types of loess involved is very important. For road and highways there are few slope stability probleas Because the region is Fat and the cut heights are not important. fe ini he case of canais big effort ia nade ih the stuay of natural drainage and gully erosion, The minber of culverts tends to vo Targe to avoid the water action against. the facility. In the case of gas and water conduits, en phasis is made in critical points, like joints, curves, pumping stations, ote that are treated with special care (Nunez,1975). For big power transition line towers, each Of then is studied independently. In the no- re unstable areas, deep foundation with pi les is used. They should be strong enough up to the point of working as colunns in the case of the ground were renoved by a gully. Experiences applying heavy tamping with in- troduction of gravels in a way similar to the used abroad (Abelev and Askalanov, 1957) has been testing. The inprovenent has’ been satisractory although they have not been in- Gustrially adopted, concusioNs In spite of its particular behavior, loess [the necessary adaptations to produce fle solutions. E'ipn bo explained ening Sos) Nechantes Hallirs corltoatlts cractice world have fe topics curtantiy onder rosoarch thaejcan 1ea'to’ practical applications are: 1) tonitication of the loess area Ee baa ees Hrteplsteoge acta’ ct che, ota Cicies, for development purposes. There is Spe se sree cent lergepreegsaen cs map__on scales inrge enough to Se, used for planning. Other inportant effort is made for the development of geotechnical naps suita-