Osmotic consolidation of expansive soil
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Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Japanese Geotechnical Society Special Publication
Abstract
The mechanical behavior of expansive soils is influenced by the concentration of salts in their pore water. Research
has shown that volume change of soil can occur due to a difference in salt concentration in the pore water between
different zones of the soil as a result of either osmotically-induced consolidation or osmotic consolidation. The effect
of the salt concentration of the pore water in unsaturated soil mechanics can be expressed as osmotic suction. Very
little work has been done to quantify the mechanical equivalence of osmotically-induced and osmotic consolidation.
This study attempts to quantify the mechanical stress equivalence of consolidation of an expansive soil submerged in
a salt solution. Two remoulded soil samples of kaolin - bentonite mixture in proportions of 70% – 30% and 90% -
10%, (kaolin – bentonite) by dry mass were submerged in different concentrated salt solutions to investigate the effect
of osmotic suction. Results showed that osmotic suction caused an additional settlement over the consolidation
settlement under a mechanical stress but does not affect the soil compressibility. The osmotic coefficient of volume
change (mπ) is only a fraction of the coefficient of volume change (mv).
Description
Keywords
Osmotic consolidation,, Osmotic suction,, Mechanical stress,, Consolidation settlement
Citation
Bulolo, S., & EC, L. (2019). Osmotic consolidation of expansive soil. Japanese Geotechnical Society Special Publication, 7(2), 256-260.