Abstract
Expansive soils show high volumetric changes with changes in water content. When they imbibe water during wet season, they expand and upon evaporation thereof through dry season, they shrink. Because of this alternate swelling and shrinkage, structures founded on them are severally damaged. Potentially problematic shrink-swell soils can be found almost anywhere in the world especially in arid and semi-arid regions of the tropical and temperate climate. Due to the lack of experience pertinent to characterization and dealing with problematic shrink-swell soils in Egypt, many defects appear in some structures established in development projects. Density and severity of problems associated with the presence of shrink-swell soils differ from region to another. Many factors contribute to the problem such as: soil type, soil engineering properties, foundation type, nature of development project, and the extension of development zone…etc. In this research, extensive experimental work has been performed on sixty two (62) soil samples obtained from various sites all over Egypt. The investigation targeted to assess volumetric change and moisture diffusion characteristics as well as index properties of unsaturated clayey soils. Test results confirm that volumetric change and moisture diffusion characteristics for unsaturated soils can be reasonably related to conventional soil index properties. Based on the obtained comprehensive database of results, ten (10) equations expressing relationships among different engineering properties of unsaturated shrink-swell soils in Egypt are proposed and discussed.
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Abbreviations
- L.L.:
-
= Liquid Limit.
- P.I.:
-
= Plasticity Index.
- P.L.:
-
= Plastic Limit.
- SWCC:
-
= Soil Water Characteristic Curve.
- γh :
-
= Suction Compressibility.
- U:
-
= Total Suction expressed as logarithmic unit (pF).
- uw :
-
= Total Suction expressed in units of cm of water head.
- γdry :
-
= Dry Unit Weight.
- Gs :
-
= Specific Gravity of Soil Solids.
- Isw :
-
= Swell Limit.
- Ish :
-
= Shrink Limit.
- Iss :
-
= Shrink-Swell Index.
- F.S.:
-
= Free Swell.
- SP:
-
= Swelling Potential.
- αsh :
-
= Coefficient of Unsaturated Diffusivity in shrink condition.
- αsw :
-
= Coefficient of Unsaturated Diffusivity in swell condition.
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Hassona, F., Abdelmalak, R.I., Hakeem, B.M. (2018). Characterization of Unsaturated Shrink-Swell Soils Properties in Egypt. In: Hoyos, L., McCartney, J. (eds) Advances in Characterization and Analysis of Expansive Soils and Rocks. GeoMEast 2017. Sustainable Civil Infrastructures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61931-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61931-6_2
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