Abatement of Clay Expansion via CaOH stabilization and overloading

T. López-Lara, J.B. Hernández-Zaragoza, J. Horta-Rangel, J.A. Zepeda-Garrido, J.C. Rodríguez Uribe

In the proceedings of: GEO2011: 64th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 14th Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 5th Pan-American Conference on Teaching and Learning of Geotechnical Engineering

Session: Ground Improvement/Remediation

ABSTRACT: Expansive clays are soils found naturally in many regions of Mexico and several other countries. However, they represent a major problem in the construction industry due to the volumetric change because of humidity variations. This, in turn, produces many fissures in piping, foundations, and buildings placed on top of them. Although there are several solutions to this problem, most of them lack of the contribution of overloads transmitted by the structure in the diminishing of soils expansion. Because of the above, the aim of this research was to study the decrease of volume change in expansive soils due to overloads in natural clays and stabilized with CaOH. The overloading will improve soil behavior due to the loads transmitted by the structures and savings in the stabilizing material. This, in turn, the stabilization cost will be reduced with the application of overloads, resulting significant savings when both techniques are used to solve the original problem.

RESUMEN: Las arcillas expansivas son suelos que se encuentran de manera natural en muchas regiones de México y otros países, lo que ocasiona problemas en la industria de la construcción por sus variaciones volumétricas cuando varía el contenido de agua, ocasionando fisuramientos en tuberías, cimentaciones y edificios ubicados sobre estas arcillas. Aunque se han planteado varias soluciones al problema, la mayoría de ellas no consideran la contribución de la sobrecarga transmitida por las estructuras, disminuyendo la expansión del suelo. Por esta razón el propósito de esta investigación fue estudiar la reducción del cambio volumétrico en suelos expansivos por la sobrecarga, tanto en arcillas naturales como estabilizadas con CaOH. La sobrecarga proveniente de las cargas transmitidas por las estructuras mejora el comportamiento del suelo y permite economías en el material de estabilización. A su vez los costos del tratamiento de estabilización disminuyen con la aplicación de la sobrecarga, resultando ahorros significativos cuando se emplean ambas técnicas para resolver el problema original.

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Cite this article:
T. López-Lara; J.B. Hernández-Zaragoza; J. Horta-Rangel; J.A. Zepeda-Garrido; J.C. Rodríguez Uribe (2011) Abatement of Clay Expansion via CaOH stabilization and overloading in GEO2011. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{GEO11Paper832,author = T. López-Lara; J.B. Hernández-Zaragoza; J. Horta-Rangel; J.A. Zepeda-Garrido; J.C. Rodríguez Uribe ,title = Abatement of Clay Expansion via CaOH stabilization and overloading,year = 2011}