Citation
Azmi, Nor Azwati
(2008)
The Effect of Wetting on the Collapsibility and Shear Strengths of Tropical Residual Soils.
Masters thesis, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Abstract
In Malaysia, almost 80% of its land is covered with residual soils, especially
sedimentary and granitic residual soils. It is believed that these types of soil
have a high possibility to collapse when wetted. The high rate of
collapsibility is influenced by the climatic tropical factor, hot and high humidity
throughout the year. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to identify
the effect of wetting on the collapsibility and shear strength of the tropical
residual soils. Two major tests employed in the study were the Double
Oedometer and Double Shear Box tests. For each test, two different
samples were tested; the first samples were the soils in their natural moisture
condition and the second were inundated in water. The samples tested
using the double oedometer test were allowed to be inundated in water for a
few days under applied load until they achieved a steady state (the dial
gauge reading remained constant) before another load was added. There were 20 samples in the situation before and after the inundated condition for
the two major tests. Other than the rate of collapsibility and shear strength of
these soils, other parameters such as void ratio, porosity, particle size
distribution, dry density and bulk density were also observed. Other test such
as the Scanning Electron Microscopic and X-Ray Diffraction Analysis were
also carried out. From the result obtained, both type of soil collapse due to
wetting however, calculated collapse potential indicates that the granitic
residual soil is higher and having wider range as compared to sedimentary
residual soil. After collapsing due to wetting, result from SEM analysis
indicate that the soils sample structure become more compacted and voids
between structure become smaller. On the other hand, result from shear
strength test showed shear strength reduced vigorously after inundated
especially in Granitic residual soil because the cohesion and friction angle
reduced to more than 50% whereas much lesser in Sedimentary residual soil
i.e. in the range of 30% to 40%.
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