Settlement predictions in complex sabkha soil profiles

Abstract

Sabkha soils are coastal and inland saline sediments of arid climates, commonly occurring in Middle Eastern and North African countries. They form heterogeneous and complex soil profiles with poor mechanical properties and appreciable organic content. In sabkha soils, prediction of soil behaviour is difficult due to the composite nature of the soil profiles. Geotechnical properties of a typical sabkha formation from the west coast of Saudi Arabia is studied. The settlement predictions based on statistical average of laboratory-determined compressibility parameters are compared with settlements measured in an instrumented test embankment. The predicted magnitudes of the settlements are found reliable and comparable to field measurements. Analysis based on laboratory determined parameters, however, highly overestimate the in situ settlement-time behaviour.