DIFFICULT SOILS

COLLAPSIIBLE AND EXPANSIVE SOILS

 COLLAPSIBLE SOILS
• These soils are dry and strong in their natural state and
appear to provide good support for foundations.
• However if they become wet, these soils quickly
consolidate, thus generating unexpected dramatic
settlement causing structural damage to building.
• Collapsible soils consist predominantly of sand and silt
size particles in a loose ‘honeycomb’ structure..
• This loose structure is held together by small amounts
of water-softening cementing agents, such as clay or
calcium carbonate.
 Collapsible loess soils
• Loess soils consist of 80 percent quartz, 10 to 20 percent
feldspar and up to 20 percent carbonate. The percentage of
clay size particles may range up to 15 percent.
• Loess soils tend to collapse on saturation under load or at
least when the moisture content is changed , they
consolidate very rapidly- 95 % of settlement can occur in
ten minutes.
• The effect is local which can lead to very large differential
settlement of structures founded on them.
• Similar loss of strength may occur after disturbance by
large loads or earthquakes.
 Preventive and Remedial Measures
• Removal of the collapsible soil. If the collapsible soil is
shallow, excavate the soil.
• Avoidance or minimization of wetting
• Transfer of load through the collapsible soils to the stable
soils below (deep foundation)
• Injection of chemical stabilizers or grout
• Prewetting
• Compaction with rollers or vehicles, displacement piles,
heavy tamping, vibroflotation (vibrating probes)
• Preloading
 EXPANSIVE SOILS
• INTRODUCTION:
• Expansive soils inflict damages to buildings, roads, airports,
pipelines and other facilities each year.
• Expansive soils are not as dramatic as hurricanes, flooding or
earthquakes, they act more slowly and the damage is spread
over wide areas rather than being concentrated in a small
locality.
• The economic loss is large and much of it could be avoided
by proper recognition of the problem and incorpotating
appropriate preventive measures into the design,
construction, and maintenance of new facilities.
 Nature, origin, and occurrence of Expansive
soils
• Expansive soils are clays whose volume changes
as a result of moisture content variation.
• Clays are made up of small particles that are
usually plate shaped.
• The engineering properties of clays are strongly
influenced by the very small size and large
surface area of these particles and the inherent
electrical charges.
 What causes a clay to expand?
• Several different clay minerals (kaolinite, illite,
momtmorillonite) occur in nature, the difference being defined
by their chemical makeup and structural configuration.
• The different chemical composition and crystalline structures of
these minerals give each a different susceptibility to swelling
shown in the table 1.
• Swelling occurs when water infiltrates between and within the
clay particles, causing them to separate.
• Kaolinite is essentially none expansive because of the presence
of strong hydrogen bonds that hold the individual clay particles
together
 TABLE 1. SWELL POTENTIAL OF PURE CLAY
MINERALS
Surcharge load Swell Potential (%)
Lb/sq. ft (kPa) kaolinite illite montmorillonit
e
200 9.6 negligible 350 1500
400 19.1 negligible 150 350
 Expansive clay minerals
• Illite contains weaker potassium bonds that
allow limited expansion.
• Montmorillonite particles are only weakly
linked. Water can easily flow into
montmorillonite clays and separate the
particles.
• Thus, Most soils with large amount of
montmorillonite clay minerals have greatest
swelling problems.
 Factors which act on clay particles
• Surface tension in the minisci of water contained
between the particles (tends to pull the particles
together, compressing the soil)
• Osmotic pressures (tend to bring water in, thus
pushing the particles further apart and expanding the
soil).
• Pressures in entrapped air bubbles (tend to expand
the soil)
• Effective stresses due to external loads (tend to
compress the soil).
 What factors control the amount of
expansion?
• The percentage of expansive clays in the soil.
• A pure montmorillonite could swell more than 15 times its original
volume.
• Initial moisture content. If the soil is initially moist, then there is
much less potential for additional expansion than if it were dry.
• Surcharge load restrains much of the swell potential. Implication:
pavements and slabs-on-grade are so susceptible to damage from
expansive soils than high rise building’s foundation soil.
• Remolding a soil into a compacted fill may make it more expansive
probably because this process breaks up cementation in the csoil
and produces high negative pore water pressures that later
dissipate.
 Factors continued
• Compacting a soil wet of the optimum moisture content reduces
its potential for expansion
• Compacting the soil to a lower dry unit weight reduces its swell
potential (However, there is a reduction in shear strength and
increased compressibility).
• Laboratory test results may not accurately predict the behaviour
of expansive soils in the field b’cos
• The supply of water (depends on rainfall, irrigation, and surface)
• Evapotranspiration; large tree roots extract large quantities of
water from the soil.
• The presence of fissures in the soil.
 Occurrence of Expansive Clays
• Chemical weathering of rocks can form clay minerals
• The particular mineral formed depends on the mineralogy of the
parent rock, topography, climate, neighboring vegetation, duration
of weathering.
• Montmorillonite clays often form as a result of the weathering of
ferromagnesian minerals, calcic feldspars and volcanic materials.
• Montmorillonite forms in an alkaline environment with a supply of
magnesium ions and lack of leaching in an semi-arid regions.
• Sodium montmorillonite (bentonite) is formed by chemical
weathering of volcanic ash
• Expansive clays are found worldwide in North America, Africa,
Australia, India, Peru, Spain
Influence of climate on expansion potential

• Any expansive soil could potentially shrink and swell depending

on the balance between water entering a soil such as
precipitation or irrigation and water leaving the soil through
evaporation and transpiration.
• In humid climates, the soil is moist or wet and tends to remain so
throughout the year.
• small variations in moisture content results in very little
shrinkage or swelling.
• Most of the problems with expansive soils occur in arid, semi-
arid, and monsoonal areas because the seasonal distribution of
precipitation and evaporation/transpiration causes wide
fluctuation in the soil’s moisture content.
 Identification of expansive clays
• Visual identification of potentially expansive
soils.
• A soil must have a significant clay content,
probably falling within the unified symbol CL or
CH
• A dry expansive soil will often have fissures,
slickensides, or shattering.
• When dry, these soils will have cracks at the
ground surface
 Qualitative Evaluations
• Qualitative methods classify the expansives of
the soil with terms such as ‘low’, ‘medium’ or
‘high’, and form the basis for empirically
based preventive measures
• They are based on correlations with common
soil tests, such as the Atterberg limits or the
percent colloids.
 Correlations with common soil tests
% colloids PI Shrinkage SPT N value Liquid limit Swelling
Limit Potential
<15 <18 <15 >39 <39 Low
13-23 15-28 10-16 20-30 39-50 Medium
20-31 25-41 7-12 10-20 50-6>3 High
>28 >35 >11 <10 >63 Very high
Typical Structural Distress Patterns
• Generally, buildings in arid areas experience an
edge lift that causes them to distort in a
concave-up fashion.
• In humid climates, the expansive soil may shrink
when it dries, causing the edges to depress.
• Heated buildings with slab-on-grade floors in
colder climates sometimes experience a center
depression due to drying and shrinkage of the
underlyingbclay soils
 Preventive Design and Construction
Measures
• The geotechnical engineer’s major concern at a project
site which contains an expansive soil is to provide design
and construction that will minimize the damage potential
while keeping construction costs to a minimum.
• Basic Preventive Measures for Buildings Site on
expansive soil
• Surface Drainage . Good surface drainage is required. The
ground surface should slope away from the structure.
• Install gutters or other means of collecting rainwater
from roof and discharging it away from the foundation.
 Preventive measures cont’d
• Basement Backfills: If the structure has a basement,
the backfill should consists of inexpansive soils. The
backfill soil should be well compacted to avoid
subsequent settlement and water to infiltrate the soil.
• Install a drain pipe at the bottom of the backfill to
capture any infiltrated water and carry it away from
the building.
• Landscaping Irrigation near the structure can
introduce large quantities of water into the soil which
can cause swelling if the soil is expansive.
 Underground Utilities
• Utility lines especially water carrying pipes
often become distorted with water leakage
due to differential swelling of expansive soils.
• To reduce the potential expansive problems,
flexible pipe materials i.e., PVC or ABS are
used instead of clay or concrete pipe.
 Altering the Expansive Clay
• Replacement: Remove the expansive soil and bring in a
nonexpansive soil as a replacement.
• Replacement method is very effective but expensive
• Lime Treatment: When hydrated lime is mixed with an
expansive clay, a chemical reaction (cation exchange,
flocculation) occurs.
• The swelling potential is reduced. Shear strength is
increased. Moisture content is decreased.
• Normally the rate of application varies from 2 to 8
percent highways and canal construction.
 Prewetting (ponding, presoaking or
presaturation)
• Consists of covering the site with water before
construction in an attempt to increase the
moisture content of the soil.
• The process causes the soil to expand before
building the structure and then maintain it at
high moisture content.
 Moisture Barriers
• Impermeable moisture barriers either
horizontal or vertical can be effective means of
stabilizing the moisture content of the soil
under a structure.