China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Building movement: foundations
Published in Duncan Marshall, Derek Worthing, Roger Heath, Nigel Dann, Understanding Housing Defects, 2013
Duncan Marshall, Derek Worthing, Roger Heath, Nigel Dann
In summer, shrinkable clay sub-soils will normally tend to contract due to reduction of their water content. This reduction of the soil moisture content is known as desiccation. It can be made worse by the presence of trees and shrubs that take up moisture through their roots. The resultant contraction of the sub-soil can lead to subsidence – the building above will sag/move downwards. In such circumstances, cracking will tend to be wider at the bottom rather than the top. However, the presence and effect of trees may confuse the damage pattern.
Free desiccation shrinkage process in clayey soils
Published in European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, 2022
Wen-Qing Cheng, Zhengtian Yang, Mahdia Hattab, Hanbing Bian, Salima Bouchemella, Jean-Marie Fleureau
In clays, the desiccation, or drying process, is commonly understood as a loss of water by evaporation (Terzaghi et al., 1996). Drying of an initially saturated clayey soil generally induces strains in the material called shrinkage, which is one of the fundamental reasons of desiccation cracking in soils. Thus, due to shrinkage crack development, desiccation may affect soil properties, such as strength, permeability, compressibility, etc., which in practice can compromise the sustainability of geotechnical structures as mentioned in different studies reported in the literature (Nahlawi et al., 2004; Dyer, 2005; Morris et al., 1992; Tang et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2016). Owing to the significant importance of this question, desiccation shrinkage mechanisms in clayey soils have gained the attention of many researchers during the last decades, in both experimental investigations and numerical modelling.
Wetting-drying cycles durability of cement stabilised marginal lateritic soil/melamine debris blends for pavement applications
Published in Road Materials and Pavement Design, 2020
Jeerapan Donrak, Suksun Horpibulsuk, Arul Arulrajah, Hai-lei Kou, Avirut Chinkulkijniwat, Menglim Hoy
For N > 3, the integrity of the samples was not preserved; i.e. the samples gradually crumbled, fragmented and splintered. Deterioration and crack propagation occur due to the desiccation kinetics causing the loss of the moisture (Aldaood, Bouasker, & Mukhtar, 2014; Hoy et al., 2017). Following by the wetting process, the available pore spaces and cracks are filled with water. As such, the UCS increases due to the growth of cementitious products up to N = 3 and then decreases onward. Similar observations were reported by Cuisinier, Le Borgne, Deneele, and Masrouri (2011) and Hoy et al. (2017) on soil stabilised with lime and recycled asphalt pavement stabilised with geopolymer, respectively.