EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON SHRINK- SWELL BEHAVIOUR OF EXPANSIVE SOIL

摘要

An expansive soil shows high volumetric changes with changes in water content. When they imbibe water during monsoon, they expand and on evaporation thereof in summer, they shrink. Because of this alternate swelling and shrinkage, structures fonded on them are severally damaged. Extensive research work has been done on expansive soil but an important aspect of the expansive soil mass is the volume reduction or shrinkage exhibited on drying is appears to be inadequately investigated in the available literature. This paper includes the study of shrinkage behaviour or the rate at which volume decrease takes place when a given soil at different initial water content shrink till it assume fully shrunken dry state and attempt is made to propose appropriate parameter characterizing shrinkability of soil on lines of the “Limiting Unit Swell Potential”. The aspects presented here above have important relevance in predicting cyclic volumetric change exhibited by any natural or manmade soil mass. Extensive laboratory investigations were carried out on five soil materials, at different initial water contents, possessing different swelling characteristics.