According to Dudley (1970), and Harden et al., (1973), four factors are needed to produce collapse
in a soil structure:
1. An open, partially unstable, unsaturated fabric
2. A high enough net total stress that will cause the structure to be metastable
3. A bonding or cementing agent that stabilizes the soil in the unsaturated condition
4. The addition of water to the soil which causes the bonding or cementing agent to be reduced, and the interaggregate or intergranular contacts to fail in shear, resulting in a reduction in total volume of the soil mass.
Collapsible behavior of compacted and cohesive soils depends on the percentage of fines, the initial water content, the initial dry density and the energy and the process used in compaction.
Current practice in geotechnical engineering recognizes an unsaturated soil as a four phase material composed of air, water, soil skeleton, and contractile skin. Under the idealization, two phases can flow, that is air and water, and two phases come to equilibrium under imposed loads, that is the soil skeleton and contractile skin. Currently, regarding the behavior of compacted collapsing soils, geotechnical engineering recognized that
1. Any type of soil compacted at dry of optimum conditions and at a low dry density may develop a collapsible fabric or metastable structure (Barden et al., 1973).
2. A compacted and metastable soil structure is supported by microforces of shear strength, that is bonds, that are highly dependent upon capillary action. The bonds start losing strength with the increase of the water content and at a critical degree of saturation, the soil structure collapses (Jennings and Knight 1957; Barden et al., 1973).
3. The soil collapse progresses as the degree of saturation increases. There is, however, a critical degree of saturation for a given soil above which negligible collapse will occur regardless of the magnitude of the prewetting overburden pressure (Jennings and Burland,
1962; Houston et al., 1989).
4. The collapse of a soil is associated with localized shear failures rather than an overall shear failure of the soil mass.
5. During wetting induced collapse, under a constant vertical load and under Ko-oedometer conditions, a soil specimen undergoes an increase in horizontal stresses.
6. Under a triaxial stress state, the magnitude of volumetric strain resulting from a change in stress state or from wetting, depends on the mean normal total stress and is independent of the principal stress ratio.
Figure 18.2 Locations of major loess deposits in the United States along with other sites of reported collapsible soils (after Dudley, 1 970)
Figure 18.3 Collapsible and noncollapsible loess (after Holtz and Hilf, 1961)
The geotechnical engineer needs to be able to identify readily the soils that are likely to collapse and to determine the amount of collapse that may occur. Soils that are likely to collapse are loose fills, altered windblown sands, hillwash of loose consistency, and decomposed granites and acid igneous rocks.
Some soils at their natural water content will support a heavy load but when water is provided they undergo a considerable reduction in volume. The amount of collapse is a function of the relative proportions of each component including degree of saturation, initial void ratio, stress history of the materials, thickness of the collapsible strata and the amount of added load.
Collapsing soils of the loessial type are found in many parts of the world. Loess is found in many parts of the United States, Central Europe, China, Africa, Russia, India, Argentina and elsewhere. Figure 18.2 gives the distribution of collapsible soil in the United States.
Holtz and Hilf (1961) proposed the use of the natural dry density and liquid limit as criteria for predicting collapse. Figure 18.3 shows a plot giving the relationship between liquid limit and dry unit weight of soil, such that soils that plot above the line shown in the figure are susceptible to collapse upon wetting.
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