Performance of Stiffened Slab-on-Grade Foundation on Shrink-Swell Soils: Case Study of the Ellison Office Building, College Station, Texas
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Abstract
Stiffened slabs-on-grade are one of the most efficient and inexpensive foundation solutions for lightweight structures on shrink-swell soils. The Ellison Office Building (EOB) is a 1-story steel-framed building founded on a clay formation of high shrink-swell potential. The foundation system of the EOB is composed of a rectangular stiffened slab-on-grade with approximate dimensions of 18.3 by 38.1 m. The slab thickness is 0.1 m, and the depth of all stiffening beams is 1.05 m. Beam spacing distances, center to center, are 3.05 and 3.81 m in the short and long directions, respectively. Exploration of subsurface soil conditions at the EOB site took place to determine soil index properties as well as unsaturated moisture diffusion and volume change characteristics for unsaturated soils. Monitoring the movements of both the slab-on-grade and the 4.5 m soil underneath continued for 2 years after foundation construction, since September 2004. Investigating the EOB foundation performance in light of the soil-structure interaction characteristics of the foundation showed two main distinct slab movement patterns: continuous global heave and localized fluctuating slab edge heave and drop movements.
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Acknowledgments
This research was sponsored by the Spencer J. Buchanan Professorship at Texas A&M University. Several students have contributed to this paper, including Xiong Zhang and Ken Yun Ree. The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Charles A. Ellison’s (founder of the Ellison Firm) gracious help and permission to freely access his facility and monitor the foundation performance during the entire course of the investigation.
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Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 31 • Issue 3 • June 2017
Copyright
©2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 1, 2015
Accepted: Sep 15, 2016
Published online: Nov 30, 2016
Discussion open until: Apr 30, 2017
Published in print: Jun 1, 2017
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