The use of tensile reinforcement to increase the tensile strength and shear strength of soils has lead to many new applications of reinforced soil. The use of such reinforcing in embankments and foundations over weak soils is one of the most recent applications of this technology. The studies conducted were concerned with the development of and application of analytical techniques to reinforced soil foundations and embankments over weak soils. A finite element computer program was modified for application to reinforced soil structures, including consolidation behavior of the foundation soil. Plane strain and axisymmetric versions of the program were developed and a membrane element developed which has radial stiffness but no flexural stiffness. The applicability of the program was verified by comparing analytical results to case histories of reinforced embankments and to model studies of reinforced foundations. A simplified procedure for computing the bearing capacity of reinforced sand over weak clay was developed which is more general than those previously available. Good agreement with available experimental results was obtained, providing preliminary verification of the procedure. Extensive analyses were made of a reinforced embankment successfully constructed with no sign of distress, and of two reinforced embankments constructed to failure. These analyses showed that good agreement can be obtained between measured and calculated reinforcement forces, settlements, and pore pressures for both working and failure conditions. The analyses further show that the use of the finite element method and limit equilibrium analyses provide an effective approach for the design of reinforced embankments on weak foundations. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

On September 14, 1981 a major slide was discovered in the upstream slope of San Luis Darn, located about 100 miles southeast of San Francisco, California. The slide occurred at the end of a period of rapid drawdown of the reservoir. Although this was the longest and fastest drawdown in the life of the dam, 180 feet in 120 days, there had been seven previous cycles of drawdown, some nearly as severe as the one that preceded the slide. Field measurements showed the slide was caused by the clayey slopewash material left in the foundation of the dam during construction. Although the slopewash was dry and extremely strong when the embankment was built, it apparently was weakened considerably when submerged beneath the reservoir and its strength was further degraded by cyclic loading effects as the reservoir level was raised and lowered during the 14 years preceding the slide. The objective of this research was to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of strength loss in the slopewash that resulted in the 1981 slide at San Luis Dam. This was accomplished using laboratory tests on undisturbed samples of slopewash, analyses of seepage through the embankment and foundation, finite element analyses of stresses in the dam during construction and operation of the reservoir, and conventional equilibrium slope stability analyses. The laboratory tests showed that the shear strength of the slopewash decreases very quickly when the desiccated material is wetted. Wetting causes immediate reduction in shear strength to the fully softened value, and there is no lasting effect of consolidation by drying. After wetting the highly desiccated slopewash has the same strength as in the remolded, normally consolidated condition. Tests that simulated cyclic changes in normal stress and shear stress like those during drawdown and refilling of the reservoir showed that further strength loss results from cyclic loading of the slopewash. Cyclic loading at stress levels below the fully softened peak strength result in continual shear displacement, and eventually, when the cumulative horizontal displacement reaches approximately ten inches, the shear strength is reduced to its residual value. / Ph. D.

Because the Coastal Plain of southeastern Virginia has not been extensively studied, thirty random samples associated with Blackwater and Nottoway rivers were collected in the spring of 1987 from Surry, Sussex, and Southampton counties. Soil classification as well as mineralogical, chemical, and physical analysis were conducted for all samples. The purposes of this investigation were to: (1)classify the soils in this area, (2) determine the distribution of sand and clay minerals, (3) examine the weathering effect on clay minerals on different position of the landscape for different parent material sources. The soils examined classified as follow: Aquic Hapludults 43% > Typic Hapludults 26.6% > Ultic Hapludalfs 10% > Humic Hapludults 3% = Typic Rhodudlts 3% = Aquic Hapludalfs 3% = Typic Udipsamment 3% = Typic Quartzpsamment 3% = Psammentic Hapludalfs. Qualitative analysis of clay minerals revealed that kaolinite and hydroxy interlayer vermiculite were the dominant clay minerals; that montmorillonite, mica, gibbsite quartz, and vermiculite were of lesser quantities; that chlorite, feldspar and interstratified minerals were of trace amounts. Kaolinite represents about 21-70%, HlV 11-60%, montmorillonite 0-20%, mica 0-16%, gibbsite 0-13%, quartz 1-12%, and vermiculite 0-10%. The presence of these minerals were mainly related to the acid reaction of the soil media, which was essentially attributed to Al and H ions in soil solution. From the past history and geological composition of the Piedmont it is assumed that kaolinitic minerals were transported and sedimented in the Coastal Plain. Hydroxy-interlayer vermiculite minerals was weathering from vermiculite because most of the Al was adsorbed by vermiculite to form HIV. Therfore, gibbsite was not precipitated. Montmorillonite was assumed to have formed from mica minerals. That was substantiated by statistical analysis which showed a high negative correlation between gibbsite and vermiculite (r=0.46, n=30) and between montmorillonite and mica (r=-0.6, n=10). / Master of Science

No description available.

Thesis. 1977. Sc.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil Engineering. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 381-386. / Sc.D.

Thesis. 1978. Sc.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil Engineering. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaves 416-426. / Sc.D.

No description available.

Copies of author's previously published articles in pocket inside back cover. Bibliography: leaves 147-160. This thesis outlines the factors affecting soil strength and structural stability and their interrelationship in salt-affected soils. The objectives of this study are to investigate the influence of clay particles on soil densification and mellowing, the mellowing of compacted soils and soil aggregates as influenced by solution composition, the disaggregation of soils subjected to different sodicities and salinities and its relationship to soil strength and dispersible clay and the effect of organic matter and clay type on aggregation of salt-affected soils.

Shallow foundations are extensively used to support structures of all sizes and derive their support from near surface soils. Thus, they are typically embedded up to a few meters into the soil profile. Designers of shallow foundations are required to meet two limit states: overall failure of the soil beneath the foundation (bearing capacity) and excessive settlement. Existing bearing capacity design methods use an assumed shearing plane within the soil and perfectly plastic soil behavior to estimate the ultimate resistance available. The immediate settlement of a shallow foundation is typically approximated using an elasticity-based method that does not account for actual, nonlinear soil behavior. A load test database was developed from footing load tests reported in the literature to assess the accuracy and uncertainty in existing design methodologies for calculating bearing capacity and immediate settlement. The assessment of uncertainty in bearing capacity and immediate settlement was accomplished through the application of a hyperbolic bearing pressure-displacement model, and the adaptation of the Duncan-Chang soil constitutive model to footing displacements. The prediction of bearing capacity using the general bearing capacity formula was compared to the bearing capacity extrapolated from the load test database using a hyperbolic bearing pressure-displacement model. On average the general bearing capacity formula under-predicts the bearing capacity and exhibits a significant amount of variability. The comparison was used to develop resistance statistics that were implemented to produce resistance factors for an LRFD based design approach using AASHTO load statistics. The Duncan-Chang model was adapted to predict bearing pressure displacement curves for footings in the load test database and used to estimate governing soil parameters. Bearing pressure-displacement curves fitted to the observed curves were used to back calculate soil stiffness. The soil stiffness was used with an elasticity-based displacement prediction method to evaluate the accuracy of the method. Finally, the back-calculated modulus from the fitted Duncan-Chang model was used to assess the accuracy and uncertainty associated with the elasticity-based K-factor, a correlation based stiffness parameter. In general the comparisons indicate that the current design procedures over-predict the bearing pressure associated with a given displacement and exhibit a significant amount of uncertainty. / Graduation date: 2012

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.