Lateral Pressure on Secant Pile wall due to Highly Expansive Clay

[moe333]

In addition to high lateral earth pressure for a secant pile wall due to low friction angle of fat clay, lateral pressures due to potential swell may be applicable. The clay has a very high Expansion Index (130+), PI=44, LL=73. Any thoughts on how to estimate additional lateral pressure due to potential swell from Expansion Index and Atterberg data alone?

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

Run a swell test. Anything else will just be a guess.

Really should collect the sample and then trim it so the test is ran horizontally since the horizontal stress may be much different than the vertical stress.

And when someone say, that is too expensive. Point out how much the wall is going to cost and tell them too bad. You want a design, you have to pay for the data.

Mike Lambert