Collapsible (hydrocompactable) soils are relatively common in the Western United States. This paper reviews the use of consolidation tests to identify and to evaluate collapsibility from the original approach of Jennings and Knight in 1957 to current practice. The methods reviewed test at field moisture (dry) or at complete saturation. This approach certainly models the worst-case wetting likely to be encountered by a structure. However, current procedures do not answer the question of how much collapse may occur at intermediate degrees of wetting, which are much more likely to occur. The author proposes that a set of consolidation tests performed over a range of initial moisture contents can be used to evaluate degree of wetting effects by utilizing the principle of the "capillary barrier." A preliminary test procedure is proposed and two examples are presented.
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