Ahmed Shlash Alawneh

Effects of organic matter on the physical and the physicochemical properties of an illitic soil

The main thrust of this study is to investigate the effects of organic matter on the physical and the physicochemical properties of illitic soils. For this purpose, organic matter (peat) was added to inorganic illitic clayey soil at eight levels (0%, 5%, 10%, 12.5%, 15%, 17.5%, 20%, and 30% by weight). The physicochemical properties of the resulting soils were determined using a Grain Size Analyzer (GSA) with specific surface area measurement, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Infrared Spectroscopy (IR). The physical properties of the mixtures were determined by conducting a series of laboratory tests including Atterberg limits, compaction, unconfined compressive strength, and swell characteristics tests. The results showed that at low organic contents (in general less than 15%) the soil particles tend to aggregate, whereas at higher organic contents the soil particles tend to disperse. Also, the IR tests showed that direct chemical interactions took place between the organic and the inorganic fractions of the mixtures. The tests on the physical properties showed that at low organic content (up to 10%) the plasticity index slightly increased then after, the plasticity index decreased with increasing organic content. Organic matter has shown to decrease the maximum dry density and increase the optimum water content, nevertheless, although organic matter decreased the soils compactability, the feasibility of compaction of slightly organic content soils still exists. Moreover, it was shown that organic matter decreased the peak strength values and increased the water contents at these peak strengths. The final free swell for illitic soils increased with increasing levels of added organic matter.

Micropile technique to control upward movement of lightweight structures over expansive soils

A simplified analytical formulation is presented for the mechanism by which micropiles surrounded by compacted sand control the upward movement of lightweight buildings over expansive soils. This formulation identifies the significant variables influencing the performance of micropile reinforcement. A design methodology for micropile reinforcement utilizing the resulting formulation is proposed and illustrated by a hypothetical example.

Dependency of unit shaft resistance on in-situ stress: Observations derived from collected field data

In this study, a database comprised of 30 pullout pile load tests was collected from geotechnical literature and analyzed to investigate the dependency of unit shaft resistance on effective vertical stress. The collected database consists of steel pipe, timber, and concrete piles, with varying normalized penetration depth with respect to pile diameter, driven into loose to very dense sand. Different correlations for the uplift lateral earth pressure coefficient K, Bjerrum-Burland ratio β, and the average unit shaft resistance fave were derived using different assumptions. A comparison between measured and predicted capacities of the collected piles using the developed correlations indicated that the assumption of values of K and β that were constant with depth did not provide a reasonable fit for the measured capacities of the collected piles and thus this assumption is inappropriate. The best correlations for K and β that yield a reasonable fit to the measured capacities of the collected piles were found to be functions of sand relative density, pile diameter, and level of effective vertical stress. This indicates that average unit shaft resistance does not reach a limiting value, but rather continues to increase with depth. Moreover, the correlations for K and β in terms of effective stress revealed that average unit shaft resistance increases as pile diameter decreases and this increase depends on initial sand relative density. Comparisons of measured and predicted pullout capacities of the collected piles using the best-obtained correlations for K and β were made and compared to predictionsobtained from other methods. On the basis of these comparisons, it is concluded that the correlations for K and β in terms of effective stress give results comparable to those obtained from other methods, without stipulating limiting values for the average unit shaft resistance.