Abstract
Despite the increasing interest to understand the behavior of collapsible soils, a very limited number of procedures have been proposed to perform analyses in order to predict collapse settlements. Hence, simple models that would enable engineers to undertake analyses within the one-dimensional and two-dimensional frames are still desirable. The present paper proposes an efficient semi-analytical framework where it is shown that collapse settlements can be estimated with a very reasonable computational effort. A semi-analytical procedure is developed within a one-dimensional framework and can be extended to two-dimensional and three-dimensional problems. In this procedure, the analytical solution of the infiltration problem is combined to a collapse model in a semi-analytical process where the soil layer and time period are divided into regular increments. Each increment over the soil layer depth is considered as a small soil element for which parameters such as moisture content and pressure head are estimated as functions of time. Local volumetric strain caused by soil collapse is estimated using a collapse model and integrated numerically to find the total settlement. The soil collapse settlement can be analyzed in conjunction with volumetric moisture content. Effects of parameters such as permeability and collapse modulus can be analyzed as will be shown.
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs41062-019-0255-7/MediaObjects/41062_2019_255_Fig1_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs41062-019-0255-7/MediaObjects/41062_2019_255_Fig2_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs41062-019-0255-7/MediaObjects/41062_2019_255_Fig3_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs41062-019-0255-7/MediaObjects/41062_2019_255_Fig4_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs41062-019-0255-7/MediaObjects/41062_2019_255_Fig5_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs41062-019-0255-7/MediaObjects/41062_2019_255_Fig6_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs41062-019-0255-7/MediaObjects/41062_2019_255_Fig7_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs41062-019-0255-7/MediaObjects/41062_2019_255_Fig8_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs41062-019-0255-7/MediaObjects/41062_2019_255_Fig9_HTML.png)
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barden L, McGown A, Collins K (1973) The collapse mechanism in partly saturated soil. Eng Geol 7(1):49–60
Buckingham E (1907) Studies on the movement of soil moisture, vol 38. USDA Govt. Print. Off., Washington
Childs EC, Collis-George N (1950) The permeability of porous materials. Proc R Soc Lond 201(1066):392–405
Clayton CRI (1980) The collapse of a compacted chalk fill. In: Proceedings of the international conference on compaction. Paris, Section 2
El Korchi FZ, Jamin F, El Omari M, El Youssoufi MS (2016) Collapse phenomena during wetting in granular media. Eur J Env Civ Eng 20(10):1262–1276. https://doi.org/10.1080/19648189.2016.1177602
Farooq QU, Uchimura T (2012) A qualitative approach for the performance evaluation of artificially prepared water resistant fine soil. Appl Mech Mater 170–173:1025–1028. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.170-173.1025
Fredlund DG, Morgenstern NR (1976) Constitutive relations for volume change in unsaturated soils. Can Geotech J 13(3):261–276
Gardner WR (1958) Some steady-state solutions of the unsaturated moisture flow equation with application to evaporation from a water table. Soil Sci 85(4):228–232
Green WH, Ampt GA (1911) Studies on soil physics. J Agric Sci 4(1):1–24
Houston SL, Houston WN, Spadola DJ (1988) Prediction of field collapse of soils due to wetting. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). J Geotech Eng 114(1):40–58
Jaroslav F (1988) Collapse of loess upon wetting. Eng Geol 25(2-4):263–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-7952(88)90031-2
Kosugi K (1996) Lognormal distribution model for unsaturated soil hydraulic properties. Water Resour Res 32(9):2697–2703. https://doi.org/10.1029/96wr01776
Lommler JC, Bandini P (2015) Characterization of collapsible soils. In: Proceedings of the international foundations congress and equipment expo IFCEE, San Antonio, pp 1834–1841. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479087
Nouaouria MS, Guenfoud M, Lafifi B (2008) Engineering properties of loess in Algeria. Eng Geol 99(1-2):85–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2008.01.013
Ping Li, Vanapalli S, Tonglu Li (2016) Review of collapse triggering mechanism of collapsible soils due to wetting. J Rock Mech Geotech Eng 8(2):256–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2015.12.002
Qian HJ, Lin ZG (1988) Loess and its engineering problems in China. In: Proceedings of the international conference on engineering problems of regional soils, Beijing
Qiu J, Xie Y, Fan H, Wang Z, Zhang Y (2017) Centrifuge modelling of twin-tunneling induced ground movements in loess strata. Arab J Geosci 10:493. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-017-3297-1
Rahardjo H (1990) The study of undrained and drained behavior of unsaturated soils. Ph.D. thesis, University of Saskatchewan
Richards LA (1931) Capillary conduction of liquids through porous mediums. Physics 1(5):318–333
Rocscience Inc. RS3 Software Manual, https://www.rocscience.com/help/rs3/pdf_files/verification/Verification_016_(Transient_Groundwater_Flow).pdf
Rogers CDF (1995) Types and distribution of collapsible soils. In: Derbyshire E, Dijkstra T, Smalley IJ (eds) Genesis and properties of collapsible soils, vol 468. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0097-7_1
Santrač P, Bajić Ž, Grković S, Kukaras D, Hegediš I (2015) Analysis of calculated and observed settlements of the silo on loess. Tehnicki vjesnik/Technical Gazette. https://doi.org/10.17559/tv-20140615132437
Tadepalli R, Fredlund DG (1991) The collapse behavior of a compacted soil during inundation. Can Geotech J 28(4):477–488
Tracy FT (1995) 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D analytical solutions of unsaturated flow in groundwater. J Hydrol 170(1-4):199–214
Van Genuchten MTh (1980) A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J 44(5):892–898
Xu Y, Leung CF, Yu J, Chen W (2018) Numerical modelling of hydro-mechanical behavior of ground settlement due to rising water table in loess. Nat Hazards 94(1):241–260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3385-x
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Alluqmani, A.E., Farooq, Q.U. & Harireche, O. A semi-analytical framework for one-dimensional collapse analysis of partly saturated soils. Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. 5, 5 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-019-0255-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-019-0255-7