Lateral versus vertical swell pressures in expansive soils

2004
Sapaz, Burak
Expansive or swelling soils, exist in many part of the world, show excessive volume changes with increasing water content. As a result of this volume increase, expansive soils apply vertical and lateral pressures to the structures located or buried in these regions. Many researchs have been carried out on vertical swelling pressures helping to the engineers to design structures withstanding on these stresses. However, lateral swell behaviour of swelling soils have not been fully understood yet. Structures such as; basement walls, water tanks, canals, tunnels, underground conduits and swimming pools which will be built in expansive soils have to be designed to overcome the lateral swelling pressures as well as the other lateral pressures exerted by the soil. For this aim accurate and reliable methods are needed to predict the magnitude of lateral swelling pressures of expansive soils and to understand the lateral swelling behaviour of expansive soils. In this experimental study, the lateral swelling behaviour of an highly expansive clay is investigated using a modified thin wall oedometer which was developed in the METU Civil Engineering Department Soil Mechanics Laboratory earlier. Statically compacted samples were used in constant volume swell (CVS) tests to measure the magnitude of the lateral and vertical swelling pressures. To study the relationship between the lateral and vertical sweeling pressures, they were measured simultaneously. The samples having different initial water contents and different initial dry densities were used to study the effects of these variables on the vertical and the lateral swelling pressures. It is observed that both lateral and vertical pressures increases with increasing initial dry density and they decrease with increasing initial water content. Swell pressure ratio, the ratio of lateral swelling pressure to the vertical one, is

Suggestions

Effect of cyclic swell – shrink on swell percentage of an expansive clay stabilized by class c fly ash
As, Mehmet; Çokça, Erdal; Department of Civil Engineering (2012)
Expansive soils are a worldwide problem especially in the regions where climate is arid or semi arid. These soils swell when they are exposed to water and shrink when they dry. Cyclic swelling and shrinkage of clays and associated movements of foundations may result in cracking of structures. Several methods are used to decrease or prevent the swelling potential of such soils like prewetting, surcharge loading, chemical stabilization etc. Among these, one of the most widely used method is using chemical adm...
Influence of swell on shear strength of expansive soils
Deliktaş, Ceren; Çokça, Erdal; Department of Civil Engineering (2016)
Behavior of swelling soils is thoroughly investigated since they cause significant hazard to structures all around the world, especially in the regions with climate of arid or semi-arid. These types of soils expand upon wetting and shrink when water is removed. Existence of water significantly alters the shear strength of swelling soils. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the influence of swell on the shear strength of expansive soils. For the first series of tests, an artificial expansive...
Stabilization of expansive soils by using red mud
Çağlar, Cemre; Çokça, Erdal; Department of Civil Engineering (2019)
Expansive soils are generally existing in semi-arid and arid regions of the world. This type of soils expands when they absorb water and shrink when they dry out. Expansive soils are causing problems to the lightweight structures. The purpose of the study is to suggest a cost-effective alternative method for coping with these problems. The widely used traditional method is the stabilization of the soil with the chemical admixtures. In this study; waste red mud and waste fly ash were used as stabilizers. The...
Cyclic behavior of saturated low plastic fine soils
Sağlam, Selman; Bakır, Bahadır Sadık; Yılmaz, Mustafa Tolga; Department of Civil Engineering (2011)
Weakening and liquefaction of sands with increasing excess pore water pressures under repeated loads is well-known. Occurrence of extensive damage to the built environment also at the sites underlain by fine soils during earthquakes have led the researchers to focus on the seismic response of such soils more recently. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting cyclic behavior of saturated low-plastic fine soils through laboratory testing. An extensive laboratory testing prog...
Swell pressure prediction by suction methods
Erzin, Yusuf; Erol, Orhan (2007-07-10)
Soil suction is the most relevant soil parameter for characterization of the swell behavior. An attempt was made to predict swell pressures from soil suction measurements. In this study, Na-bentonite was mixed with kaolinite in the ratios of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% of dry kaolinite weight to obtain soils in a wide range of plasticity indices (i.e. 30, 50, 68, 84 and 97%). Suction measurements using thermocouple psychrometer technique were made on statically compacted specimens. The dependence of soil suction ...
Citation Formats
B. Sapaz, “Lateral versus vertical swell pressures in expansive soils,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2004.