characterization of dispersive soils描述色散的土壤.pdfVIP

Materials Sciences and Applications, 2011, 2, 629-633 629 doi:10.4236/msa.2011.26085 Published Online June 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/msa) Characterization of Dispersive Soils 1 1 2 T. S. Umesh , S. V. Dinesh , Puvvadi V. Sivapullaiah 1Department of Civil Engineering, Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Tumkur, India; 2Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. Email: t_s_umesha@yahoo.co.in, dineshsv2004@, siva@civil.iisc.ernet.in Received December 27th, 2010; revised March 28th, 2011; accepted April 27th, 2011. ABSTRACT Dispersive soils which occur in many parts of the world are easily erodible and segregate in water pose serious prob- lems of stability of earth and earth retaining structures. The mechanism of dispersivity of soils is reasonably well un- derstood. However there is simple method to identify the dispersivity of the soils and even more difficult to quantify the dispersivity. Visual classification, Atterberg ’s limits and particle size analysis do not provide sufficient basis to differ- entiate between dispersive clays and ordinary erosion resistant clays. Pinhole test and double hydrometer test are the only two tests that are in vogue to identify the dispersive soils. This paper explores the possibility of using other stan- dard tests such as shrinkage limit and unconfined compressive strength tests to quantify the dispersivity of the soils. The rationale of using the methods and correlation between the dispersivity determined by various methods has been ex- plained. It has been concluded that dispersivity ascertained from strength tests is more reliable. Keywords : Atterberg ’s Limit, Dispersive Soils, Particle Size Distribution, Unconfined Compression Strength 1. Introduction