Influence of Lateral Swelling Pressure on the Geotechnical Infrastructure in Expansive Soils
This article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYThis article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 6
Abstract
Lateral swelling pressure (LSP) can pose significant threats to the safety and stability of the geo-infrastructure. For this reason, it is necessary to take into account the influence of LSP in the design of geo-infrastructure such as basement walls, retaining walls, pile foundations, and pipelines built within or adjacent to expansive soils upon water infiltration. A relationship is developed to calculate the LSP upon free swelling from the vertical swelling pressure (VSP), which can be measured from conventional laboratory tests. This relationship is extended to calculate (1) the lateral earth pressure (LEP) behind a retaining structure with expansive soils as backfill material, and (2) the uplift friction along a single pile placed in expansive soils upon infiltration. Experimental results from large-scale tests and centrifuge tests from published literature are used to validate the proposed methods. The studies presented in this paper not only highlight the influence of LSP on the geo-infrastructure but also provide simple tools for taking account of it in the conventional geotechnical engineering practice for both saturated and unsaturated expansive soils.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the research funding and financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and China Scholarship Council—University of Ottawa Joint Scholarship. Also, the authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers whose comments were valuable and have significantly contributed to this paper.
References
Abbas, M. F., Elkady, T. Y., and Al-Shamrani, M. A. (2015). “Evaluation of strain and stress states of a compacted highly expansive soil using a thin-walled odometer.” Eng. Geol., 193, 132–145.
Adem, H. H. (2015). “Modulus of elasticity based method for estimating the vertical movement of natural unsaturated expansive soils.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Ottawa, Ottawa.
Adem, H. H., and Vanapalli, S. K. (2013). “Constitutive modeling approach for estimating the 1-D heave with respect to time for expansive soils.” Int. J. Geotech. Eng., 7(2), 199–204.
Adem, H. H., and Vanapalli, S. K. (2014a). “A simple method for prediction of the modulus of elasticity of unsaturated expansive soils.” UNSAT2014 Conf. on Unsaturated Soils: Research and Application, CRC Press/A.A.Balkema, Leiden, Netherlands.
Adem, H. H., and Vanapalli, S. K. (2014b). “Elasticity moduli of expansive soils from dimensional analysis.” Geotech. Res., 1(2), 60–72.
Agus, S. S., Arifin, Y. F., Tripathy, S., and Schanz, T. (2013). “Swelling pressure-suction relationship of heavily compacted bentonite-sand mixtures.” Acta Geotech., 8(2), 155–165.
Alonso, E. E., Gens, A., and Josa, A. A. (1990). “A constitutive method for partially saturated soils.” Géotechnique, 40(3), 405–430.
Alonso, E. E., Romero, E., Hoffmann, C., and García-Escudero, E. (2005). “Expansive bentonite-sand mixtures in cyclic controlled-suction drying and wetting.” Eng. Geol., 81(3), 213–226.
ASTM. (2008). “Standard test method for measuring stiffness and apparent modulus of soil and soil-aggregate in-place by electro-mechanical method.” ASTM D6758-08, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2014). “Standard test methods for one-dimensional swell or collapse of soils.” ASTM D4546-14, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2015a). “Standard guide for calculating in situ equivalent elastic moduli of pavement materials using layered elastic theory.” ASTM D5858-96, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2015b). “Standard test methods for modulus and damping of soils by fixed-base resonant column devices.” ASTM D4015-15, West Conshohocken, PA.
Aytekin, M. (1992). “Finite element modeling of lateral swelling pressure distributions behind earth retaining structures.” Ph.D. thesis, Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX.
Azam, S., and Wilson, G. W. (2006). “Volume change behavior of a fissured expansive clay containing anhydrous calcium sulfate.” Proc., 4th Int. Conf. on Unsaturated Soils, Vol. 1, ASCE, Reston, VA, 906–915.
Bernier, F., Volckaert, G., Alonso, E., and Villar, M. (1997). “Suction-controlled experiments on Boom clay.” Eng. Geol., 47(4), 325–338.
Borana, L., Yin, J. H., Singh D. N., and Shukla S. K. (2015). “A modified suction-controlled direct shear device for testing unsaturated soil and steel plate interface.” Mar. Georesour. Geotechnol., 33(4), 289–298.
Brackley, I. J. A. (1973). “Swell pressure and free swell in a compacted clay.” Proc., 3rd Int. Conf. on Expansive Clays, Vol. 1, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, 169–176.
Brackley, I. J. A., and Sanders, P. J. (1992). “In-situ measurement of total natural horizontal stresses in an expansive clay.” Géotechnique, 42(3), 443–451.
Brignoli, E. G. M., and Stokoe, K. H., II (1996). “Measurement of shear waves in laboratory specimens by means of piezoelectric transducers.” Geotech. Test. J., 19(4), 384–397.
Burland, J. B. (1973). “Shaft friction of piles in clay—A simple fundamental approach.” Ground Eng., 6(3), 30–42.
Caquot, A., and Kerisel, J. (1948). Tables for the calculation of passive pressure, active pressure and bearing capacity of foundations, Gauthier-Villars, Paris.
Chandler, R. J. (1968). “The shaft friction of piles in cohesive soils in terms of effective stress.” Civil Eng. Public Works Rev., 63(743), 48–51.
Chen, F. H. (1988). Foundations on expansive soils, Elsevier, New York.
Çimen, Ő., Keskin, S. N., and Yıldırım, H. (2012). “Prediction of swelling potential and pressure in compacted clay.” Arabian J. Sci. Eng., 37(6), 1535–1546.
Cooling, L. F., and Skempton, A. W. (1942). “A laboratory study of London clay.” J. Inst. Civ. Eng., 17(3), 251–276.
Das, B. M. (2011). Principle of foundation engineering, 7th Ed., Cengage Learning, Stamford, CT.
Day, R. W. (1994). “Swell-shrink behavior of expansive compacted clay.” J. Geotech. Eng., 618–623.
Dif, A. E., and Blumel, W. F. (1991). “Expansive soils under cyclic drying and wetting.” Geotech. Test. J., 14(1), 96–102.
Dueck, A. (2007). “Results from suction controlled laboratory tests on unsaturated bentonite—Verification of a model.” Experimental unsaturated soil mechanics, Springer, Berlin, 329–335.
Ertekin, Y. (1991). “Measurement of lateral swell pressure with thin wall odometer technique.” M.S. thesis, Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical Univ., Ankara, Turkey.
Escario, V., and Saez, J. (1986). “The shear strength of partly saturated soils.” Géotechnique, 36(3), 453–456.
Fan, Z. H. (2007). “Research on swelling-shrinkage characteristic and pile-soil interaction of expansive soil foundation.” Ph.D. thesis, Central South Univ., Changsha, China (in Chinese).
Fleming, I., Sharma, J. S., and Jogi M. B. (2006). “Shear strength of geomembrane-soil interface under unsaturated conditions.” Geotext. Geomembr., 24(5), 274–284.
Fourie, A. B. (1989). “Laboratory evaluating of lateral swelling pressure.” J. Geotech. Eng., 1481–1486.
Fredlund, D. G. (1969). “Consolidometer test procedural factors affecting swell properties.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Expansive Clay Soils, Texas A & M Press, College Station, TX, 435–456.
Fredlund, D. G., and Morgenstern, N. R. (1976). “Constitutive relations for volume change in unsaturated soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 13(3), 261–276.
Fredlund, D. G., Morgenstern, N. R., and Widger, R. A. (1978). “The shear strength of unsaturated soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 15(3), 313–321.
Fredlund, D. G., and Rahardjo, H. (1993). Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils, Wiley, New York.
Fredlund, D. G., Rahardjo, H., and Fredlund M. D., (2012). Unsaturated Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Gan, J. K. M., and Fredlund, D. G. (1988). “Multistage direct shear testing of unsaturated soils.” Geotech. Test. J., 11(2), 132–138.
Garven, E., and Vanapalli, S. K. (2006). “Evaluation of empirical procedures for predicting the shear strength of unsaturated soils.” Unsaturated Soils 2006, ASCE, Reston, VA, 2570–2592.
Gokhale, K. V. G. K., and Jain, K. K. (1972). “Anisotropic swelling in black cotton soil.” Bull. Int. Assoc. Eng. Geol., 5(1), 63–71.
Gu, X. W. (2005). “Study on the interaction between unsaturated expansive soils and structure.” M.S. thesis, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing, China (in Chinese).
Hamid, T. B. (2005). “Testing and modeling of unsaturated interfaces.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.
Hamid, T. B., and Miller, G. A. (2009). “Shear strength of unsaturated soil interfaces.” Can. Geotech. J., 46(5), 595–606.
Hong, G. T. (2008). “Earth pressures and deformations in civil infrastructure in expansive soils.” Ph.D. dissertation, Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX.
Jaky, J. (1944). “The coefficient of earth pressure at rest.” J. Soc. Hungarian Archit. Eng., 78(22), 355–358.
Janbu, N. (1957). “Earth pressure and bearing capacity calculations by generalized procedure of slices.” Proc., 4th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Butterworths, Oxford, U.K., 207–212.
Jiang, Z. X., and Qin, X. L. (1991). “A new method for calculating lateral swell pressure in expansive soil.” Proc., 7th Int. Conf. on Expansive Soils, ASCE, Reston, VA, 233–238.
Jones, D. E., and Holtz, W. G. (1973). “Expansive soils—The hidden disaster.” Civil Eng., 43(8), 49–51.
Kassiff, G., and Zeitlen, J. G. (1962). “Behavior of pipes buried in expansive clays.” J. Soil Mech. Found. Eng., 88(2), 133–150.
Katti, R. K., Bhangle, E. S., and Moza, K. K. (1983). “Lateral earth pressure of expansive soil with and without a cohesive non-swelling soil layer—Applications to earth pressures of cross drainage structures of canals and key walls of dams (studies of condition).”, Central Board of Irrigation and Power, New Delhi, India.
Katti, R. K., Katti, D. R., and Katti, A. R. (2002). Behavior of saturated expansive soil and control methods, A.A.Balkema, Oxford, U.K.
Khoury, C. N., Miller, G. A., and Hatami, K. (2010). “Unsaturated soil geotextile interface behavior.” Geotext. Geomembr., 29(1), 613–624.
Komornik, A., and Zeitlen, J. G. (1965). “An apparatus for measuring lateral soil swelling pressure in the laboratory.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Canada National Publication, Ottawa, 278–281.
Lo Presti, D., Pallara, O., Lancelotta, R., Amandi, M., and Maniscalco, R. (1993). “Monotonic and cyclic loading behavior of two sands at small strains.” Geotech. Test. J., 16(4), 409–424.
Lu, N., and Kaya, M. (2014). “Power law for elastic moduli of unsaturated soil.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 46–56.
Luna, R., and Jadi, H. (2000). “Determination of dynamic soil properties using geophysical methods.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on the Application of Geophysical and NDT Methodologies to Transportation Facilities and Infrastructure, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC.
Mayne, P. W., and Kulhawy, F. H. (1982). “-OCR relationships in soil.” J. Geotech. Eng. Div., 108(GT6), 851–872.
Mohamed, O. Z., Taha, Y. K., and El-Aziz, E. M. (2013). “Field study of the distribution of lateral swelling pressure of expansive soil on the retaining structure.” J. Eng. Sci., 42(2), 289–302.
Moza, K. K., Katti, R. K., and Katti, D. R. (1987). “Active pressure studies in saturated expansive soil.” Proc., 8th Asian Regional Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Japanese Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Kyoto, Japan, 189–192.
Nagaraj, H. B., Munnas, M., and Sridharan, A. (2009). “Critical evaluation of determining swelling pressure by swell-load method and constant volume method.” Geotech. Test. J., 32(4), 1–10.
Nelson, J. D., Chao, K. C., Overton, D. D., and Nelson, E. J. (2015). Foundation engineering for expansive soils, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Nelson, J. D., and Miller, J. D. (1997). Expansive soils, problems and practice in foundation and pavement engineering, Wiley, New York.
Ofer, Z. (1980). “Instruments for laboratory and in-situ measurements of LSP of expansive clays.” Proc., 4th Int. Conf. on Expansive Soils, ASCE and International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Reston, VA, 45–53.
Oloo, S. Y., and Fredlund, D. G. (1996). “A method for determination of FB for statically compacted soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 33(2), 272–280.
Puppala, A. J., and Cerato, A. (2009). “Heave distress problems in chemically-treated sulfate-laden materials.” Geo-Strata, 10(2), 28–32.
Rahardjo, H., and Fredlund, D. G. (1983). “General limit equilibrium method for lateral earth force.” Can. Geotech. J., 21(1), 166–175.
Rahardjo, H., Melinda, F., Leong, E. C., and Rezaur, R. B. (2011). “Stiffness of a compacted residual soil.” Eng. Geol., 120(1–4), 60–67.
Rao, S. M. (2006). “Identification and classification of expansive soils.” Expansive soils-recent advances in characterization and treatment, Taylor & Francis, London, 15–24.
Richards, B. G., and Kurzeme, M. (1973). “Observations of earth pressures on a retaining wall at Gouger Street Mail exchange, Adelaide.” Aust. Geomech. J., G3(1), 21–26.
Robertson, A. M. G., and Wangener, F. V. M. (1975). “Lateral swelling pressure in active clay.” 6th Conf. for Africa on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, A. A. Balkema, Leiden, Netherlands, 107–114.
Ruwaih, I. A. (1987). “Experiences with expansive soils in Saudi Arabia.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Expansive Soils, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 317–322.
Sahin, H. (2011). “Characterization of expansive soil for retaining wall design.” M.S. thesis, Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX.
Sapaz, B. (2004). “Lateral versus vertical swell pressures in expansive soils.” M.S. thesis, Middle East Technical Univ., Ankara, Turkey.
Sharma, H. D., Dukes, M. T., and Olsen, D. M. (1990). “Field measurement of dynamic moduli and Poisson’s ratios of refuse and underlying soils at a landfill site.” Geotechnics of waste landfills: Theory and practice, A. Landva and G. D. Knowles, eds., ASTM, West Conshohocken, PA, 57–70.
Shields, D. H., and Tolunay, A. Z. (1973). “Passive pressure coefficients by method of slices.” J. Soil Mech. Found. Div., 99(SM12), 1043–1053.
Shuai, F. (1996). “Simulation of swelling pressure measurements on expansive soils.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
Skempton, A. W. (1961). “Horizontal stresses in an over consolidated Eocene clay.” Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Dunod, Malakoff, France, 351–357.
Skempton, A. W., and Henkel, D. J. (1957). “Tests on London clay from deep borings at Paddington, Victoria and South Bank.” Proc., 4th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Butterworths, Oxford, U.K., 100–106.
Sridharan, A., Rao, A. S., and Sivapullaiah, P. V. (1986). “Swelling pressure of clays.” Geotech. Test. J., 9(1), 24–33.
Sudhindra, C., and Moza, K. K. (1987). “An approach for lateral pressure assessment in expansive soils.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. of Expansive Soils, Central Board of Irrigation and Power, New Delhi, India, 67–70.
Sun, Y., Shao, L., and Fan, Z. (2011). “Experimental research on Poisson’s ratio of sandy soil.” Geomechanics and geotechnics: From micro to macro, Taylor & Francis, London, 433–438.
Suwal, L. P., and Kuwano, R. (2010). “Development of disc shaped pieze-ceramic plate transducer for elastic wave measurements in laboratory specimens.” Bimonthly J. Inst. Ind. Sci., 61(6), 1075–1080.
Suwal, L. P., and Kuwano, R. (2012). “Poisson’s ratio evaluation on silty and clayed sands on laboratory specimens by flat disk shaped piezo-ceramic transducer.” Univ. of Tokyo, Tokyo, 141–158.
Symons, I. F., Clayton, C. R. I., and Darley, P. (1989). “Earth pressures against an experimental retaining wall backfilled with heavy clays.”, Transport and Road Research Laboratory, Crowthome, Berkshire, U.K.
Tatsuoka, F., and Kohata, Y. (1995). “Stiffness of hard soils and soft rocks in engineering applications.” Proc., Int. Symp. on Pre-Failure Deformation of Geomaterials, A.A.Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 947–1063.
Tatsuoka, F., and Shibuya, S. (1992). “Deformation characteristics of soils and rocks from field and laboratory tests.” Proc., 9th Asian Regional Conf. of SMFE, Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society, Pathumthani, Thailand, 101–170.
Terzaghi, K. (1925). “Principles of soil mechanics. I: Phenomena of cohesion of clays.” Eng. News-Rec., 95(19), 742–746.
Terzaghi, K. (1926). “The mechanics of adsorption and swelling of gels.” 4th Colloid Symp. Monograph, Chemical Catalog, New York, 58–78.
Terzaghi, K. (1931). “The influence of elasticity and permeability on the swelling of two-phase systems.” Colloid chemistry, J. Alexander, ed., Chemical Catalog, New York, 65–88.
Terzaghi, K. (1943). Theoretical soil mechanics, Wiley, New York.
Tu, H. Y., and Vanapalli, S. K. (2016). “Prediction of the variation of swelling pressure and 1-D heave of expansive soils with respect to suction using the soil water retention curve as a tool.” Can. Tech. J., 53(8), 1213–1234.
Vanapalli, S. K., and Fredlund, D. G. (2000). “Comparison of empirical procedures to predict the shear strength of unsaturated soils using the soil-water characteristic curve.” Proc., Unsaturated Soil Sessions of Geo-Denver 2000, ASCE, Reston, VA, 195–209.
Vanapalli, S. K., Fredlund, D. G., Pufahl, D. E., and Clifton, A. W. (1996). “Method for the prediction of shear strength with respect to soil suction.” Can. Geotech. J., 33(3), 379–392.
Vanapalli, S. K., and Lu, L. (2012). “A state-of-the art review of 1-D heave prediction methods for expansive soils.” Int. J. Geotech. Eng., 6(1), 15–41.
Vanapalli, S. K., and Oh, W. T. (2010). “A method for predicting the modulus of elasticity of unsaturated soils using the soil-water characteristic curve.” Int. J. Geotech. Eng., 4(4), 425–433.
Vanapalli, S. K., and Taylan, Z. (2012). “Design of single piles using the mechanics of unsaturated soils.” Int. J. Geomate, 2(1), 197–204.
Vu, H. Q., and Fredlund, D. G. (2004). “The prediction of one, two- and three-dimensional heave in expansive soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 41(4), 713–737.
Wang, C. H., Liu, Q. C., and Li, B. (2008). “Rankine’s earth pressure theory considering roughness of wall back surface.” Chinese J. Geotech. Eng., 30, 129–133 (in Chinese).
Wang, Q., Tang, A. M., Cui, Y. J., Delage, P., and Gatmiri, B. (2012). “Experimental study on the swelling behaviour of bentonite/claystone mixture.” Eng. Geol., 124, 59–66.
Windal, T., and Shahrour, I. (2002). “Study of the swelling behavior of a compacted soil using flexible odometer.” Mech. Res. Commun., 29(5), 375–382.
Xie, Y., Chen, Z. H., Sun, S. G., Gang, L., and Fang, X. W. (2007). “Test research on three-dimensional swelling pressure of remolded expansive clay.” Rock Soil Mech., 28(8), 1636–1642.
Yang, G. L., Teng, K., and Qin, C. H. (2014). “An in-situ experimental research of lateral swelling pressure on expansive soils.” J. Central South Univ., 45(7), 2326–2332.
Zhang, D., Liu, S., and Zhang, T. (2012). “Water content and modulus relationship of a compacted unsaturated soil.” J. Southeast Univ., 28(2), 209–214.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 6 • June 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 10, 2015
Accepted: Sep 20, 2016
Published online: Feb 2, 2017
Published in print: Jun 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 2, 2017
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.