Determination of Swelling and Shrinkage Properties of Undisturbed Expansive Soils |
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| Authors: | Maki Ito and Shahid Azam |
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| Institution: | (1) Environmental Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway Regina, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada; |
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| Abstract: | Expansive soils exhibit large volume changes when their water content changes. Alternate heave and settlement due to seasonal
climatic variations result in distress and damage in civil infrastructure systems. This research focuses on the understanding
of swelling and shrinkage phenomenon in the surface layer of expansive soils. Undisturbed field samples were used to capture
the effect of in situ conditions (geologically induced fissuring and environmentally caused saturation) on volume change properties of Regina clay.
Based on laboratory investigations, the swelling potential and swelling pressure of the native clay at S = 82% were found to be 1.5% and 3.5 kPa, respectively. The swell-shrink path during progressive soil drying followed an S-shaped curve comprising of an initial low structural shrinkage followed by a sharp decline during normal shrinkage and then
by a low decrease during residual shrinkage. The soil microstructure correlated well with the observed volume change behaviour
as well as with the consistency limits. The presence of fissures in field samples at various degrees of saturation confirmed
that the investigated deposit is at an equilibrium condition with respect to the swell-shrink phenomenon. The swelling properties
at any initial saturation state were estimated using the free swelling test and the swell-shrink test data in conjunction.
The swelling potential increased 12 times (from 2 to 24%) and the swelling pressure increased by two orders of magnitude (from
27 to 2500 kPa) with a change in the degree of saturation from 80% (at the plastic limit) to 60% (at the shrinkage limit). |
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