09-15 SWELLING PRESSURE STUDY OF GEOPILE REINFORCED BLACK COTTON SOIL USING FREE SWELL METHOD AND CONSTANT

VOLUME METHOD
Anu Mary Jacob and Ajitha Bhaskar Dept of Civil Engg, College of Engineering, Trivandrum Introduction The problems posed by expansive soils have been recorded all over the world. Several methods have been introduced in the past to control this problem. The most recently developed method to control the swelling nature of expansive soils is by installing geopiles. Geopiles are vertical cylindrical cells made of geogrid and filled with geomaterials. The geomaterials include clay, sand and gravel. The present study is conducted on black cotton soil reinforced with geopile using gravel as fill material. The objective of the paper is to study the effect of diameter, spacing, pattern of arrangement and length of embedment of geopile on swelling pressure of black cotton soil. Swelling pressure tests were conducted on geopile reinforced black cotton soil in two methods to verify the results. Swelling pressure tests were conducted in free swell method and constant volume method. Results indicated that swelling pressure can be decreased by increasing the diameter, number and length of embedment of geopile and decreasing the spacing .

Materials and Methods Materials used The black cotton soil used for the study was collected from Maruthumalai, Coimbatore. Biaxial geogrid was used for making the geopile. Gravel of size 4.75 10 mm was used as fill material in geopiles. Gravel had a uniformity coefficient (Cu) of 1.8 and coefficient of curvature (Cc) of 1.5. Experimental Set-Up Test tank :A test tank of 0.25 m diameter and 0.14 m height was used for conducting the heave test. A steel cylinder with open ends and having a diameter of 0.21 m and 0.12 m height was inserted into the test tank. Sample preparation (a) Unreinforced soil bed : In all the tests, black cotton soil sample of 10% initial moisture content was used for filling the steel cylinder. The soil was filled in 3 layers in the inner portion of the container up to a height of 0.06 m. (b) Soil bed reinforced with geopile : Keeping the geogrid cylindrically, the ends of the mesh were connected together using steel wires. For the preparation of different pattern of arrangements of geopile viz. hexagonal, triangular, square and these cylindrical meshes were placed at appropriate positions at the required spacing in the test apparatus. Gravel was filled inside the cylindrical geogrid meshes in the required density. The soil is filled inside the mould around the geopile. ENKAY swell pressure test apparatus : ENKAY Swell pressure test apparatus was used for performing the swelling pressure test (free swell method). Loads were applied to the specimen with the help of a hand operated loading frame in the required rate. The swollen sample was subjected to pressure by applying loads uniformly until the soil attains its original volume.

The loads acting on the soil were displayed on a digital indicator unit which is connected to the machine. In the constant volume method , a proving ring is connected to the central loading frame of the apparatus . From the proving ring readings, the swelling pressure exerted by the soil can be calculated. Results and Conclusions By inundating a 0.06 m deep black cotton soil bed using water for 48 hours swelling pressures of 58.9 kPa and 39.73 kPa were observed in the free swell method and constant volume method. Effect of diameter of geopile on the swelling pressure of black cotton soil In order to study the effect of diameter of geopile on the swelling pressure of black cotton soil, swelling pressure tests were conducted on soil reinforced with geopiles of diameters 0.02m, 0.03m and 0.04m arranged in triangular pattern (3 numbers) at a constant spacing of 3d. The results of the study are shown in Table I. Table I Effect of diameter of geopile on heave and swelling pressure of black cotton soil Swelling pressure (kPa) Diameter (m) 0.020 0.030 0.040 Free swell method 35.71 10.52 0.87 Constant volume method 24.53 7.49 0.0 % reduction in swelling pressure Free swell method 39.37 82.14 98.52 Constant volume method 38.26 81.14 100

From the table we can see that there is only marginal variation between the swelling pressures in free swell method and constant volume method. As the diameter of geopile increases the swelling pressure reduces.

Effect of spacing between geopiles on the swelling pressure of black cotton soil In order to study the effect of spacing between geopiles on heave and swelling pressure of black cotton soil swelling pressure tests were conducted on soil reinforced with 0.03m diameter geopile arranged in triangular pattern at different spacing of 3d, 2.5d and 2d.. But from the results we can see that when spacing reduces from 3d to 2.5d the % reduction in swelling pressure increases from 80% to 90% (approaximately). But when the spacing is reduced from 2.5d to 2d there is only small reduction in the % reduction in swelling pressures. That indicates that beyond a spacing of 2d the % reduction in swelling pressure tends to become a constant value. Effect of pattern of arrangement of geopiles on the swelling pressure of black cotton soil In order to study the effect of pattern of arrangement of geopiles on the swelling pressure of black cotton soil, the tests were conducted on soil reinforced with 0.03m diameter geopile at a constant spacing of 3d arranged in three different pattern of arrangements. The results of the study are shown in Table II. Results shows that as the number of geopile increases the swelling pressure reduces generally and also the increase in the % reduction in swelling pressure was found to be marginally greater in the constant volume method. Table 2 Effect of pattern of arrangement of geopiles on heave and swelling pressure of black cotton soil Swelling pressure (kPa) Pattern of Arrangement Triangular Square Hexagonal Free swell method 10.52 8.52 3.47 Constant volume method 7.49 6.98 1.85 % reduction in swelling pressure Free swell method 82.14 85.53 94.11 Constant volume method 81.14 82.43 95.34

Effect of length of embedment of geopile on the swelling pressure of black cotton soil In order to study the effect of length of embedment of geopile on the swelling pressure of black cotton soil, swelling pressure tests were conducted on soil reinforced with geopiles of 0.03m diameter (arranged in triangular pattern at a constant spacing of 3d) with different embedment lengths such as 0.03 and 0.06m. Also tests were conducted on soil reinforced using geopiles of 0.04m diameter with embedment lengths such as 0.04 and 0.06m. The results indicate that for larger diameter of geopile the length of embedment can be reduced inorder to bring down the swelling pressure. References Katti, R K and Katti, A R, (1994). Behaviour of Saturated Expansive Soil and Control Methods, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi Phanikumar B R and Sharma R S, (2005). Laboratory Study of Heave Behaviour of Expansive Clay Reinforced with Geopiles, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 131, pp. 512-520 Phanikumar B R, Sharma R S, and Nagendra G, (2004). Compressive load response of granular piles reinforced with geogrids, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 41, pp. 187-192 Rao K S S, (2004). Swell-shrink Movements and Design of cushioned Foundations in Expansive soils, National Symposium on Advances in Geotechnical Engineering, pp. 13-17