Abstract

GONZALES-RUFINO, José Luis  and  CHAVEZ-ALEGRIA, Omar. Expansion evaluation of presaturated soils. Ing. invest. y tecnol. [online]. 2021, vol.22, n.4, e1883.  Epub Jan 31, 2022. ISSN 2594-0732.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fi.25940732e.2021.22.4.027.

Expansive soils have caused considerable damage to structures and pavements. In order to solve this problem, total substitution of the expansive material or stabilization with additives like lime, cement, fly ash has been opted (Rosales, 2014). Nevertheless, these methods are expensive and require the material to be homogenize and stabilized in a correctly manner (González et al., 2017). To quantify the effect that the prewetting method has on expansive soils, onedimensional swell tests with consolidometer were made. Deformation for both, free swell and for an initial vertical pressure of 20 kPa was measured for compacted soils (Standard effort, 600 kN•m/m3), sampled from Pedro Escobedo and Juriquilla, state of Querétaro. The vertical deformation was determined at the end of the primary expansion for both soils, varying their grade of saturation from 60 % up to 91.5 %, depending on the material. Similarly, triaxial test (UU) were made to analyze the effect that such variation has on the shear strength parameters of each soil. From this, it was observed that the increments in the grade of saturation were followed by a reduction of both, deformation and the internal friction angle, cohesion values remain constant. Coefficient of determination was used to evaluate the results, assesing the correlation between two variables and interpreting the efficiency of the least squares adjustment (Gorgas et al., 2011). Coefficients of determination equal or above 0.90 were obtained in the majority of cases. This process must be carried out in such a way that a saturation by capillary ascension is guaranteed, the time of the process of saturation commonly is of three days in the field. So it has viability.

Keywords : Expansive soils; presaturation method; shear strength parameters.

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