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ABSTRACT: A number of expansive soil classification methodologies have been available to identify the ex-
pansive potential. Different classification schemes have been practically developed in different locations. This
paper presents an alternative technique to classify the expansive soils in central Thailand based on the consti-
tutive parameters: (1) water content index with respect to total suction, and (2) suction index in terms of void
ratio and total suction. Several undisturbed subgrade samples were collected from highway route no. 357 lo-
cated in the central region of Thailand, which encountered severe longitudinal cracking along asphalt pave-
ment shoulder prior to trafficking. Results suggested that this technique agreed well with other classification
methodologies and also provided more definition of expansive potential.
KEYWORDS: expansive soils; total suction; constitutive parameters; longitudinal cracks; pavement shoulder
1 INTRODUCTION
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357.Several expansive soil classification methodolo- subsoils, which results in weaken of subsoils and
gies as suggested by Holtz & Gibbs (1956), Seed et loss of foundation support to pavements. Mainte-
al. (1962), Chen (1988), and McKeen (1992) were nance and repairs can be costly and often result in
used to evaluate swelling and shrinkage potential of excessive capitol costs.
soil specimens collected from highway route no.
357. An alternative method for assessing swelling
and shrinkage potential based on two constitutive
parameters was proposed to define the expansive
soil classification criteria for practicing engineers in
Thailand.
2 BACKGROUND
According to the soil report, there exist some ex- Table 1. Holtz and Gibbs (1956) expansive soil classification
pansive soils in the northern part of the central re- Plasticity index Expansion index Degree of expansion
gion of Thailand as shown in Figure 2. Based on the >35 > 30 Very high
soil taxonomy, such soils are high plasticity clays 25-41 20-30 High
rich with Montmorillonite clay minerals, which ex- 15-28 10-20 Medium
hibit large volumetric change due to soil moisture <18 <10 Low
variations.
Table 2. Chen (1988) expansive soil classification
Past studies revealed that the wetting and drying
cycles of expansive soils often induce large shrink- Plasticity index Expansion index Degree of expansion
>35 >10 Very high
age and swelling strains, which result in volumetric 20-55 3-10 High
change and corresponding failures in form of crack- 10-35 1-5 Medium
ing and heaving. Those cracks developed in the <15 <1 Low
pavements can further allow intrusion of moisture to
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McKeen (1992) also proposed an expansive soil 3.2 Material properties
classification methodology based on total suction Several undisturbed subgrade samples were collect-
measurement. McKeen’s methodology relies on a ed from two sections of highway route no. 357, e.g.
parameter “total suction-water content index”, which T-1 and T-2, and at varied depths. The physical
is defined as the slope of the relationship between properties and classification of these subgrade sam-
total suction and water content on a semilog plot ples are summarized in Table 4.
(i.e., the soil-water characteristic curve). The expan- The soil-water characteristic curves (SWCCs) for
sive potential is classified based on the magnitude of these subgrade samples were also determined using a
total suction-water content index according to Table series of suction measurements: a miniature tensi-
3. ometer (<90 kPa), pressure plate (100 to 1,000 kPa)
Table 3. McKeen (1992) expansive soil classification
and a relative humidity (RH) sensor (1,500 to 106
kPa). A miniature tensiometer was developed at Ka-
Total suction-water setsart University (Jotisankasa et al., 2010). It con-
Degree of expansion
content index
>-6 Very high sists of MEMs pressure sensor, 1-bar high-air-entry
-6 to -10 High porous ceramic, and transparent acrylic tube. The
-10 to -13 Moderate SWCC data were fitted with the Gitirana & Fredlund
-13 to -20 Low equation (Gitirana & Fredlund, 2004) as shown in
<-20 Nonexpansive Figure 4. Note that RH sensor measures total suc-
tion, whereas the pressure plate and tensiometer
measure matric suction. Only the RH sensor were
3 METHOD AND MATERIALS however used in the analysis part of this study.
10-1
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
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ing a veneer caliper and a digital scale. It is im- Table 5 Properties of the saturated salt solution (modified from
portant to note that during the RH measurement, the Lu & Likos, 2004)
RH within the space between the sensor and the soil Total
Saturated Tempera- % R h at d(R h )/dT
air must be at equilibrium. In this study, the RH sen- suction
R R
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4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 6. Classification of expansive soils
Degree of expansion
Table 6 summarizes the expansive soil classification Sample Holtz &
Seed et al.
ID Gibbs Chen (1988) McKeen (1992)
results according to Holtz & Gibbs (1956), Seed et (1962)
(1956)
al. (1962), Chen (1988), and McKeen (1992). A plot Medium to Medium to
of total suction-water content index as suggested by T-1A High
high high
Moderate
McKeen (1992) vs. percent clay was also presented Medium to Medium to
T-1B High Low
in Figure 9. Results from Table 6 and Figure 9 sug- high high
gested that those classification methodologies pro- T-1C
High to very
High
High to very
Moderate
vided conflict expansion ratings for each subgrade high high
High to very High to very
sample. For instance, a sample T-1B was identified T-1D High High
high high
as high degree of expansion according to Holtz & Low to me- Medium to
Gibbs (1956), while it was identified as low degree T-2A Medium
dium high
Low
of expansion according to McKeen (1992) and me- Low to me- Medium to
T-2B Medium Moderate
dium to high degree of expansion according to Seed dium high
et al. (1962) and Chen (1988). T-2C Medium Low
Medium to
Nonexpansive
In this study, two additional relationships were high
Medium to
developed for the expansive soil classification. Fig- T-2D Medium Low
high
Nonexpansive
ures 10 and 11 show plots of gravimetric water con-
tent vs. total suction and void ratio vs. total suction, 0
respectively. The slope of the relationship in Figure I: Very High
10 is the water content index with respect to total
II: High
suction, whereas the slope of the relationship in Fig- -10
T-1D
Total suction-water content index
T-2B
Figures 12 and 13 obviously indicated the effect 0.20 T-2C
of percent clay on water content index and suction T-2D
0.00
2 3 4 5 6
ψ (log kPa)
t
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0.80 5 CONCLUSIONS
0.70 An alternative technique for the expansive soil clas-
sification was developed in this paper. Two constitu-
0.60
tive parameters: (1) water content index with respect
0.50
to total suction, and (2) suction index in terms of
void ratio and total suction were employed to identi-
Void ratio (e)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
-0.03 T-2C
T-1B
T-2A
T-1C to thank John D. Nelson and Geoff Chao for their
T-1A
-0.09 T-2B invaluable comments and encouragement.
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