School of Civil Engineering Department of Civil Engineering

(MSc in Civil Engineering and Management)

(Finance and Core Skills- CE5FCS)

(Soils & Foundations)

By (Ahmed Al-Aamri)

University of Birmingham College of Engineering and Physical Sciences School of Civil Engineering Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT United Kingdom

(Date 12/11/2013)

Acknowledgement
The author would like to express the deepest appreciation to Professor Kamel Hawwash (School of civil engineering, University of Birmingham), who helped each student in the Core Skills module with his special way of delivering the information in the simplest way possible and that helped quite a lot in delivering this report.

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Table of Contents:
1) 2) Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Soil types classification .......................................................................................................... 2 2.1) 2.2) 2.3) 2.4) 3) Very Coarse Soil............................................................................................................. 2 Coarse Soil/Cohesion-less Soils/Non-cohesive Soils ..................................................... 2 Cohesive Soils ................................................................................................................ 3 Peat & Organic Soils ...................................................................................................... 3

Cases of Study in Oman ......................................................................................................... 3 3.1) 3.1) Expansive soil ................................................................................................................ 3 Presence of chlorides and sulphates in the soil ............................................................ 4

4) 5) 6)

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 6 Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 6 References .............................................................................................................................. I

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Table of Figures & tables:

FIGURE 1-1: THE THREE STAGES OF INVESTIGATION FOR ANY SITE SHOULD BE DONE BY A GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER ........... 1 FIGURE 3-1: A PICTURE SHOWING AN EXTENSIVE CRACKS IN ONE OF THE BUILDINGS ..................................................... 4 FIGURE 3-2: AN IMAGE SHOWING THE EFFECTS OF CHLORIDES ON STEEL REINFORCEMENT ............................................. 4 FIGURE 3-3: A PICTURE SHOWING MAJOR DETERIORATION TO CONCRETE DUE TO CHEMICAL ATTACKS ............................. 5 FIGURE 3-4: A PICTURE SHOWING THE APPLICATION OF NITOCOTE (AGENT) TO PCC BLIND PRIOR POURING OF
FOUNDATION FOOTING CONCRETE) .............................................................................................................. 5

TABLE 5-1: THIS TABLE SHOWS THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOIL AND THEIR SUITABLE TYPE OF FOUNDATION ........................ 6

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Ahmed AL-Aamri

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Abstract
All soils ranging from gravel, sand to clay & their mixtures (clay + sand) are having different properties either it is their grain size distribution, plastic & liquid limit, densities, moisture content, chemical tests, permeability, or shear strength parameters. These all are affecting the design considerations at large. Engineering design for construction of residential building would like to check the bearing capacity of the soil, whereas for the construction of the embankment it would be the compaction of soil to get the maximum dry density (MDD) & optimum moisture content (OMC).

This report concentrates mainly in the construction of buildings and the foundations. Soil types according to a Unified Soil Classification System USCS will be discussed in details with providing some unique characteristics of each category.

Two cases of study from Oman will be discussed in details and how to overcome the problems in each case. At the end of the report, some recommendations are produced with relate types of soil to their suitable type of foundations.

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1) Introduction
Soil is that special material which make your construction project successful or not. Soil is the real foundation that is carrying the loading of the entire structure. Each civil engineering project requires a very detailed soil analysis and investigation in order to obtain a successful design (Although technically speaking, not each project requires a soil investigation. It is important particularly for multi-story buildings, major projects, and places where soil problems exit) This investigation is carried out by a geotechnical engineer and consists of three main stages started by gathering information about the site. The second stage is observing the site physically and verifying the indicators that may be obvious above the ground. The third and the last stage is the actual subsurface investigation and is considered the most important phase among the three phases as it involves gathering samples from the site and doing the laboratory tests on these samples. That will help produce some recommendation related to that soil such as its type, its bearing capacity. The following figure describes the three phases and shows what should be done in each phase.

Phase One

Gathering information about the site

Aerial photos Surveys including geological, topographical and soil survey maps The hydrological information

Phase Two

Surface Investigations

Presence of high water table Presence of a loose top soil Presence of very big rocks in the surface

Phase Three

Subsurface Investigations

Trial pitting Sample collection Data analysis and producing a soil investigation report and include all possible recommendations

Figure 1-1: The three stages of investigation for any site should be done by a geotechnical engineer

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2) Soil types classification

Soil can be classified according to its engineering properties such as grain size distribution using either sieve analysis test or the hydrometer test, liquid and plastic limits and other properties. The most common classification systems are the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS), The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials System (AASHTO), and United States Department of Agriculture system (USDA), and all of the three systems classify the soil based on its grain size. There are six main types of soil and they are boulders, cobbles, gravel, sand, silt, clay, peat and organic soils. Each type of these soil types has its own characteristics, which will directly affect the choice of foundation used for that particular plot. Because of that, USCS rearranged these six types into four major categories. A more detailed look at each category will take place further.

2.1)

Very coarse soil

This category contains boulders and cobbles. According to BS 5930:1990, boulders are defined as the soil particles that will not pass 200 mm sieve, while cobbles are the soil particles that will pass the 200 mm sieve and be retained by 60 mm sieve. This category has a unique characteristic, which is a very high safe bearing capacity (SBC) value that varies from 10000 to 3000 kN/m2 (BS 8004:1986). That might be the best advantage, but it can be considered a disadvantage in the same time as this type of soil will require blasting for excavation. (R.F.Craig, 1997), (Wood, 2009)

2.2)

Coarse soil/Cohesion-less soils/Non-cohesive soils

This category contains gravel and sand particles. Their sizes vary from 60 mm to 2 mm for gravel particles and from 2 mm to 0.06 mm (According to BS 5930:1990). This category has a strong to an average SBC, which is between the ranges of 600 to 100 kN/m2 (BS 8004:1986). It is so important to keep the foundation in this type of close to the surface and use shallow foundation since it has enough strength and to avoid high water table problems as sands SBC gets affected very fast in case of a water table existence. (R.F.Craig, 1997), (Wood, 2009)

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2.3)

Cohesive soils

This category contains silt and clayey soils. These soils will pass 0.06 mm sieve. SBC for both types of soil is low and it varies from 600 to less than 75 kN/m2. Expansive soil is a type of clayey soil and considered a major problem that might lead to a full collapse of the entire structure. There are two solutions in this case of soil and they are: Piers/caissons (In case of a hard stratum layer is not far from the ground level) Piles (In case of the hard stratum layer is very far) and either friction piles are chosen (when no good bearing stratum and the load is taken by the friction resistance) or the end bearing piles to transfer the load to a good bearing stratum.

2.4)

Peat & organic soils

This category is not suitable for construction as it may cause a serious settlement issues since it has low ability to carry any loading due its low SBC. Furthermore, recent searches showed that there are some solutions to alter and modify the characteristics of this type of soil in order to be used in construction such as deep cement mixing process.

3) Cases of Study in Oman

3.1) Expansive soil
Expansive soil is a type of clayey soil and also known as swelling soils. This type of soil gets affected by water as they increase in volume and when the water dries, they start to shrink and cause major cracks in the structure. This soil type causes a serious problem in the Middle East region and especially in Oman. In the 1980s, a major failure occurred in Al-Khod village. This village consists of more than 90 reinforced concrete structure (RCC) residential buildings. Soon after the completion of the building, a heavy rainfall took place and directly some structural cracking signs started to appear in the buildings. These cracking varied 0.1 mm to some severe cracks reached to 75 mm. All that happened due to the lack of any historical data about the expansive soil in the area and due to carrying out a soil investigation tests before starting the project. (Qamaruddin, 1998)

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Figure 3-1: A picture showing an extensive cracks in one of the buildings (Fourth International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering, St. Louis, Missouri, March 9--12, 1998: A CASE STUDY ON EXPANSIVE SOILS AND ROCKS OF AL-KHOD IN NORTHERN OMAN, ( PAGES 219-223) https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/16513. Accessed [October/23/2013]

Expansive soil matter can be solved by some techniques such as soil replacement, injecting the soil with mortar in order to stabilize the soil, and Nailing the soil.

3.1)

Presence of chlorides and sulphates in the soil

These chemicals are the main cause of deterioration in most of Petroleum Development Oman Company (PDO) projects. According to PDOs own standard (SP 1282: guide to concrete design). For soils having high amounts of chlorides, ordinary Portland cement (OPC) should be used in concrete mixture having 5-14 % tri-calcium aluminate (C3A). Chlorides attack the reinforcement in the concrete and as thus, a corrosion inhibitor is used in all concrete mixes as a standard in PDO, for all new contracts and projects.

Figure 3-2: An image showing the effects of chlorides on steel reinforcement (Archi-products, anti-corrosion products MCI 2005. Available online at: http://www.archiproducts.com/en/products/52139/andromeda-anticorrosion-product-mci-2005-proind.html/.

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Sulphates cause deterioration, spalling and major cracks (sometimes structural) to the concrete member, reducing its durability and serviceability life. In such cases where soil is largely contaminated with sulphates, sulphate resistance cement (SRC) is used in the concrete mixes and an additional protection is used by applying protective compounds to the surface of concrete member, which is exposed to the concrete.

Figure 3-3: A picture showing major deterioration to concrete due to chemical attacks (The photo is taken in Ghaba, Oman, where soil contains very high sulphates)

Figure 3-4: A picture showing the application of Nitocote (Agent) to PCC Blind prior pouring of foundation footing concrete)

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4) Conclusion
A soil investigation should be done prior to any construction of any project to avoid soil settlement problems. Structural soil mainly consists of two categories and they are: 1) Non-cohesive soil (cobbles, gravel and sand) 2) Cohesive soil (silts, clays and organic soil) Each of these two categories has special characteristics, which will directly affect the type of foundation used for any structure. Clay soil can be very dangerous as it can be affected by water (expansive soil) and may lead to serious structural cracking problems. The presence of chemicals in the soil can cause a serious problem if they are not taken seriously.

5) Recommendations
After studying the main characteristics of each category of the soil types, a suitable foundation can be advised to be used for a certain type of soil and that is shown below

Table 5-1: This table shows the different types of soil and their suitable type of foundation

Type of Soil

Suitable foundation

1 2 3 4 5
6

Rock (Boulders, cobbles) Sand & Gravel Silt & Clay/Expansive soil Silt & Clay/Expansive soil (Small light loading) (Low to medium loading)

Isolated, Combined or Strip Isolated, Combined or Strip Raft foundation Piers or Caissons Piles (Friction Piles) Piles (End Bearing Piles)

Expansive soil or soil with heavy loading (No stratum layer at a reasonable depth) Expansive soil or soil with heavy loading reasonable depth) (Availability of a stratum layer at a

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6) References:
Admin, 2012. Expansive Soils. [Online] Available at: http://blog.thecivilengg.com/expansive-soils/ [Accessed 25 10 2013]. BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTE, 1986. BS 8004: Code of practice for foundations, London: British Standards Institute.. BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTE, 1990. BS 5930: Code of practice for site investigations, London: British Standards Institute.. Cotgrave, M. R. &. A., 2003. Construction Technology 2: Industrial and Commercial Building. 2nd ed. s.l.:Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Murthy, V., 2002. Geotechnical Engineering: Principles and Practices of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. 1st ed. s.l.:CRC Press. NPTEL, 2013. Civil Engineering - Advanced Foundation Engineering. [Online] Available at: Civil Engineering - Advanced Foundation Engineering [Accessed 12 10 2013]. NPTEL, 2013. Civil Engineering - Foundation Analysis and Design. [Online] Available at: http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses/105104137/ [Accessed 12 10 2013]. PE, R. P. W., 2010. Basic Geotechnical Engineering. [Online] Available at: http://www.cedengineering.com/upload/Basic%20Geotechnical%20Engineering.pdf [Accessed 25 10 2013]. Petroleum Development Oman, 2000. SP 1282: Specification for Reinforced Concrete Production & Construction Guidelines, Muscat: Petroleum Development Oman. Qamaruddin, A. A. A.-R. &. M., 1998. A CASE STUDY ON EXPANSIVE SOILS AND ROCKS OF ALKHOD IN NORTHERN OMAN. Missouri, Fourth International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering, St. Louis, Missouri. R.F.Craig, 1997. Soil Mechanics. 6th ed. London: SPON Press. The constructer civil engineering home, n.d. SOIL INVESTIGATION AND FOUNDATION TYPES. [Online] Available at: http://theconstructor.org/geotechnical/foundations/soil-investigationfoundation-types/26/ [Accessed 2013 10 25].

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Wood, D. M., 2009. Soil Mechanics: A one-Dimensional Introduction. 1st ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.

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