A Critical Review on Expansive Soils Including the Influence of Hydrocarbon Pollution and the Use of Electrical Resistivity to Evaluate their Properties

Abstract

This paper reviews the studies on expansive soil with a main focus on failure mechanism, financial losses, mineralogy, determination of swelling parameters and others. Effect of hydrocarbon pollution on geotechnical properties of expansive soil was presented. The paper discussed the assessment of electrical response of contaminated swelling soils. Wide extend of expansive grounds around the world and the serious impact created on infrastructures requires to identify its influential aspects and the appropriate treatments. Also, it was found that petroleum product affect significantly on the basic properties of swelling soils such as gradation, consistency, compaction, swelling and others, and electrical resistivity can be employed to reveal the electrical characteristics of polluted expansive soil.