Foundations on

Collapsible and
Expansive Soils
Collapsible soils, which are sometimes
referred to as metastable, are unsaturated
soils that undergo a large change in volume
upon saturation. The change may or may
not be the result of the application of
additional load.

Foundation that are constructed on the

collapsible soils may undergo large and
sudden settlement if the soil under them
becomes saturated with an unanticipated
supply of moisture.
The moisture may come from any several
sources, such as
a) broken water pipelines
b) leaky sewers
c) drainage from reservoir and swimming
pools
The d) a slow increase
majority in groundwater.
of naturally occuring collapsing
soils are

1.Aeolian wind-deposited sands or silts, such

as loess, aeolic beaches, and volcanic dust
deposits.

- The deposits have high void ratios and

low unit weights and are cohesionless or only
2. Loess deposits have silt-sized particles.

- The cohesion in loess may be the result of

clay coatings surrounding the silt-size
particles.

- The coatings hold the particles in a rather

stable condition in an saturated state.

- The cohesion also may be caused by the

presence of chemical precipitates leached by
rainwater.

- When the soil becomes saturated, the clay

binders lose their strength and undergo a
Many collapsing soils may be residual
soils that are products of the
weathering of parent rocks.

Weathering produces soils with a large

range of particle-size distribution.

Soluble and colloidal materials are

leached out by weathering, resulting in
large void ratios and thus unstable
structures.
Physical Parameters for Identification
Jennings and Knight(1975) suggested a
procedure for desribing the collapse
potential of a soil:
1. An undisturbed soil specimen is
taken at its natural moisture content in a
consolidation ring.
2. Step loads are applied to the
specimen up to a pressure level w of 200
kN/m2.
3. At that pressure, the specimen is
flooded for saturation and left for 24 hours.

This test provides the void ratios e and e

The collapse potential may now be calculated as
Holtz and Hilf (1961) suggested that a
loessial soil has a void ratio large enough to
allow it moisture content to exceed its liquid
limit upon saturation is susceptible to
collapse. So, for collapse,
Collapsing soils yields
 Foundation Design in Soils Not Susceptible to
Wetting
If enough precautions are taken in the field to
prevent moisture fom increasing under structures,
spread foundations and mat foundations may be
built on collapsible soils.
However, the foundations must be
proportioned so that the critical stresses in the field
are never exceeded. A factor of safety of about 2.5
to 3 should be used to calculate the allowable soil
pressure, or
The differential and total settlements of
these foundations should be similar to
those of foundations designed for sandy
soils.

Continuous foundations may be safer

than isolated foundations over
collapsible soils in that they can
effectively minimze differential
settlement.
 Foundation Design in Soils Susceptible to
Wetting

If it is suspended that the upper layer of soil

may get wet and collapse at some time after
construction of the foundation, several design
techniques may be considered:

1. If the expected depth of wetting is about 1.5

to 2 m from the ground surface, the soil may
be moistened and recompacted by heavy
rollers. Spread footings and mats may be
constructed over the compacted soil.
2. If conditions are favorable, foundation
trenches can be flooded with solutions of
sodium silicate and calcium chloride. This
will chemically stabilize the soil.

The soil will behave like a soft sandstone

and resist collapse upon saturation. This
method is successfully only if the solutions
can penetrate to the desired depth; thus it
is most applicable to fine sand deposits.
3. When the soil layer is susceptible to wetting
to a depth of about 10 m (30ft), several
techniques may be used to cause collapse of
the soil before construction of the foundation
is begun.

Two of these techniques are vibroflotation and

ponding ( also called flooding)

Vibroflotation is used successfully in free-

draining soil. Ponding-by construction low
dikes utilized at sites that have no
impervious layers.
However, even after saturation and collapse
of the soil by ponding, some additional
settlement of the soil may occur after
construction of the foundation is begun.

Additional settlement may also be caused by

incomplete saturation of the soil at the time
of construction. Ponding may be used
successfully in the construction of earth
dams.
4. If precollapsing the soil is not practical,
foundations may be extended beyond the zone of
possible wetting, although the technique may require
drilled shafts and piles.

The design of drilled shafts and piles must take into

consideration the effect of negative skin friction
resulting from the collapse of the soil structure and
the associated settlement of the zone of subsequent
wetting.

In some cases, a rock-column type of foundation

(vibroreplacement) may be considered. Rock
columns are built with large boulders that penetrate
the collapsible soil layer. They act as piles in
transferring the load to a more stable soil layer.
Foundations on Expansive Soil

There are many plastic clays that swell

considerably when water is added to them
and then shrink with the loss of water.

Foundations constructed on these clays are

subjected to large uplifting forces caused by
the swelling.

These forces will induce heaving, cracking,

andd breakup both of building foundations
and slab-on grade members.
In general, potentially expansive clays have a liquid
limits and plasticity indices greater than about 40
and 15, respectively.

The depth of the active zone will vary depending on

the location of the soil profile.

Active Zone the depth in a soil profile up to which

periodic changes of moisture occur.
Figure 13.8.
Cracks in a wall
due to heaving of
an expensive clay
Figure 13.9.
Shrinkage cracks
on ground surface
in a clay
weathered
Figure 13.12 Interconnected shrinkage cracks extended
from the ground surface into the active zone.
Laboratory Measurement of Swell

1. Unrestrained Swell Test

a) The specimen is placed in an oedometer
under a small surcharge of about 6.9kN/m2.
b) Water is then added to the specimen, and
the expansion of the volume of the specimen is
measured until equilibrium is reached. The
percentage of free swell may expressed as a ratio,
O Neill and Poormoayed(1980) developed a
relationship for calculating the free surface swell
from a correlation chart of the free swell, liquid
limit, and natural moisture content.
2. Swelling Pressure Test
The swelling pressure can be determined
from two different types of tests.

a) Conventional consolidation Test

In this type of test, the specimen is placed in a
oedometer under a small surcharge of about
6.9kN/m2 .

Water is added to the specimen, allowing it to

swell and reach an equilibrium position after some
time.

Subsequently loads are added in convenient

steps, and the specimen is consolidated.

The plot of specimen deformation() versus

The versus plot crosses the horizontal line
through the point of initial condition. The pressure
corresponding to the point of intersection is the zero
swell pressure, sw
b.
Example: A soil profile has an active zone of expansive soil of 6
ft. The
Liquid limit and the average natural moisture content during the
construction season are 50% and 20%, respectively. Determine the
free surface swell.
2.
In example 2, if the allowable total swell is
10 mm, what would be the undercut
necessary to reduce the total swell?
Foundation Considerations for Expansive Soil

If a soil has a low swell potential, standard

construction practices may be followed. However, if
the soil possesses a marginal or high swell potential,
precautions need to be taken, which may entail
1. Replacing the expansive soil under the
foundation
2. Changing the nature of the expansive soil by
compaction control, prewetting, installation of
moisture barriers, or chemical stabilization
3. Strengthening the structures to withstand
heave, constructing structures that are flexible
enough to withstand the differential soil heave
without failure, or constructing isolated deep
foundations below the depth of the active zone.
Following are some details regarding the commonly
used techniques for dealing with expansive soils.

1. Replacement of expansive Soil

When shallow, moderately expansive soil are present
at the surface, they can removed and replaced by less
expansive soils and then compacted properly.

2. Changing the Nature of Expansive Soil

a) Compaction: The heave of expansive soils decreases
substantially when the soil is compacted to a lower unit
weight on the high side of the optimum moisture
content ( possibly 3 to 4% above the optimum moisture
content). Even under such conditions, a slab-on-ground
type of construction shoul not be considered when the
total probable heave is expected to be about 38 mm
( 1.5 in) or more.
b) Prewetting: One technique for increasing the
moisture content of the soil is ponding and hence
achieving most of the heave before construction.
However, this technique may be time consuming
because the seepage of water through highly plastic
clays is slow. After ponding, 4 to 5% of hydrated lime
may be added to the top layer of the soil to make it
less plastic and more workable.

c) Installation of moisture barriers. The long-term

effect of the differential heave can be reduced by
controlling the moisture variation in the soil. This is
achieved by providing vertical moisture barriers
about 1.5 m deep around the perimeter of slabs for
the slab-on-grade type of construction. These
moisture barriers may be constructed in trenches
filled with gravel, lean, concrete, or impervious
d) Stabilization of soil: Chemical stabilzation with the aid of
lime and cement has often proved useful. A mix containing
about 5% lime is sufficient in most cases.

The effect of lime in stabilizing expansive soils, thereby

reducing the shrinking and swelling characteristics, can be
demonstated with the aid of figure 13.20.
Some of it was mixed with water to about its liquids limit. It was
placed in into two molds that were about 152 mm (6 in) long
and 12.7 mm( 0.5 in x 0.5 in) in cross section.y weight) and then
with

Figure 13.20a shows the shrinkage of the soil specimens in the

mold in a dry condition. The same soil also was mixed with 6%
lime(by dry weight) and then with a similar amount water and
placed in six similar molds.
Figure 13.20b shows the shrinkage of the lime-stabilzed
specimens in a dry condition, which was practically negligible
compared to that seen in Figure 13.20a.

Lime or cement and water are mixed with the top layer of soil
and compacted. The addition of lime or cement will decrease
the liquid limit, the plasticity index, and the swell
characteristics of the soil.

This type of stabilization work can be done to a depth of 1 to

1.5 m. Hydrated high-clacium lime and dolomite lime are
generally used for lime stabilization.
Another method of stabilization of expansive soil is the
pressure injection of lime slurry or lime-fly slurry into the soil,
usually to a depth of 4 to 5 m and occasionally deeper to
cover the active zone.
Construction on Expansive Soils