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Recent Advancements in Predicting the Behaviour of Unsaturated and Expansive Soils

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Indian Geotechnical Conference 2019

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering ((LNCE,volume 140))

Abstract

This study focuses on the advancements of characterization of unsaturated expansive soils which would allow better prediction of its swelling and mechanical behaviours. The paper has been divided into three parts. Firstly, a novel model is developed by considering two micro-soil parameters, soil-specific surface area and internal pore size distribution, to predict the natural swelling in expansive clayey soils. The model was validated by comparing the predictions with experimental results for eight soils. Secondly, the paper deals with the diffused-double-layer (DDL) theory-related electrostatic forces from individual clay minerals of expansive soils and their influence on soil swelling. A DDL-based model was also developed, which was validated for swell prediction for fourteen expansive soils. A good correlation was observed for both models when the results were compared with experimental results. Finally, the paper demonstrated the use of vapour pressure technique to control suction beyond 5 MPa for performing suction-controlled repeated load triaxial (RLT) test at high suction state. This novel technique mitigates the limitation of axis-translation technique for maintaining suction till the air-entry-value (AEV) of the ceramic disk. These new models and unsaturated laboratory testing techniques would aid in better characterization of expansive soils in their unsaturated state. This would also provide accurate prediction of swell and stiffness behaviours of soils, thereby reducing the uncertainties in the design of civil infrastructure built on expansive soils.

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Acknowledgements

The experimental work described in this paper was part of various research projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), including funding from Award # 1031214 (Program Director Dr. Richard J. Fragaszy), Major Research Instrumentation Program (Program Manager: Dr. Joanne D. Culbertson; Award # 1039956) and National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) program funded “Center for the Integration of Composites into Infrastructure (CICI)” site (NSF PD: Andre Marshall; Award # 1464489), and their support is gratefully acknowledged. Any findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We also acknowledge the support of Texas Department of Transportation’s Research and Technology Implementation (RTI) for their past funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, 19716, DE, USA

    Aritra Banerjee

  2. A.P. and Florence Wiley Chair Professor, Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, 77840, TX, USA

    Anand J. Puppala

  3. Associate Research Scientist, Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, 77840, TX, USA

    Surya S. C. Congress

  4. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, 333031, Rajasthan, India

    Sayantan Chakraborty

  5. Geotechnical Engineer, CDM Smith, Dallas, 75251, TX, USA

    Aravind Pedarla

Authors
  1. Aritra Banerjee
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  2. Anand J. Puppala
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  3. Surya S. C. Congress
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  4. Sayantan Chakraborty
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  5. Aravind Pedarla
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anand J. Puppala .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT), Surat, Gujarat, India

    Satyajit Patel

  2. Department of Applied Mechanics, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT), Surat, Gujarat, India

    C. H. Solanki

  3. Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Krishna R. Reddy

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia

    Sanjay Kumar Shukla

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Banerjee, A., Puppala, A.J., Congress, S.S.C., Chakraborty, S., Pedarla, A. (2021). Recent Advancements in Predicting the Behaviour of Unsaturated and Expansive Soils. In: Patel, S., Solanki, C.H., Reddy, K.R., Shukla, S.K. (eds) Indian Geotechnical Conference 2019. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 140. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6590-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6590-2_1

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