Swell Characterization of Expansive Clays from Comodoro Rivadavia - Argentine

EZEQUIEL MIRANDA; ORLANDI, S.; DIEGO MANZANAL; JUAN CRUZ BARRÍA

Cancún

Congreso; XVI PANAMERICAN CONFERENCE ON SOIL MECHANICS AND GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING; 2019

International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

Expansive soils from Comodoro Rivadavia (CR) city (Argentine) cause significate damages in houses and civil infrastructure. A laboratory investigation was carried out over three clays from different parts of the city to study the volume change and swell pressure develop during wetting. Experimental program consists on the physical, chemical and mineralogical characterization. The volume changes were studied with the standard free swelling test, constrains swelling tests and swell pressure tests. The microstructure was studied by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) to evaluate the porous changes for compacted samples for different water content. These investigations show the correlations between volume changes and swell pressures for different water contents and compaction efforts. Interpretation of the laboratory results is presented in the framework of simple models of swelling deformation and swelling pressure. Furthermore, a simple evaluation of the micro and macro porosities to evaluate the expansion potential is calculated for the clay studied.