Abstract
Lateral swelling pressure (LSP) develops when expansive soil volume increment associated with water infiltration is restrained in a confined domain, for example, due to construction of civil infrastructure. In this paper, initially a flowchart is developed to highlight various key factors that influence the LSP mobilization according to lab and field studies collected from previous literature studies. Then extending unsaturated soil mechanics, a theoretical framework is proposed for illustrating the LSP mobilization in the field against retaining structures and pile foundations under different boundary conditions, respectively. An example problem for a basement wall and a pile foundation constructed in a typical expansive soil from Regina, Canada, is presented to illustrate the proposed theoretical framework. The framework and corresponding analysis presented in this paper can facilitate to provide rational designs of geotechnical infrastructures in expansive soils.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundExpansive soil that is susceptible to volume increases or decreases, respectively, with changes in water content offers challenges to geotechnical engineers in the rational design of geotechnical infrastructures
Time effects are typically determined from both the laboratory and in situ tests. e swelling pressure increases rapidly due to water infiltration, reaches a peak value, and decreases gradually to a stable final value [5, 37, 38]. e mobilization of lateral swelling pressure (LSP) within an expansive backfill can be divided into four stages in a chronological order based on experimental data acquired from laboratory and large-scale pilot tests: (i) in the first stage, lateral earth pressure (LEP) initially arises due to the influence soil self-weight over a certain depth after placement or burial; compaction can contribute to the LEP to some extent depending on the compaction energy used
Mobilization of lateral swelling pressure (LSP) triggered by water infiltration can contribute to serious damages to geoinfrastructure constructed in expansive soils
Summary
Expansive soil that is susceptible to volume increases or decreases, respectively, with changes in water content offers challenges to geotechnical engineers in the rational design of geotechnical infrastructures. For fixed retaining structures (at-rest condition), the LEP is less than the vertical pressure (i.e., overburden pressure and surcharge effects), while, in an investigation study conducted by Richards and Kurzeme [1], the measured LEP considering the influence of LSP behind a 7.5 m retaining wall was found to be 1.3 to 5.0 times the overburden pressure. Largescale tests and in situ investigations were undertaken to determine the LEP considering influence of the LSP and understand its influence on the infrastructures [15, 16] These tests are generally complex and require assistance of trained professional services which are expensive and cannot be used in routine engineering practice.
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