Effectiveness of pre-wetting and pre-loading technique in solving wetting collapse settlement

Abstract

Wetting collapse is settlement triggered by groundwater inundation or surface water infiltration. This type of settlement has been causing problem to builders and home owners. This soil settlement behavior is abnormal when viewed from the standpoint of effective stress since it is taking place under effective stress decrease. By effective stress concept, settlement is always being associated with effective stress increase. Another newly discovered complex soil volume change behavior will be presented. This makes the understanding of soil volume change behavior become worse. When the behavior is failed to be understood then there is a lack of engineering solution to resolve the problem. By the introduction of the new anisotropic soil settlement framework known as the Rotational Multiple Yield Surface Framework which applies the concept of effective stress and shear strength interaction the true characteristics of the soil settlement behavior start to surface. Upon understanding the behavior a method of pre-wetting and pre-loading is proposed and tested in the laboratory and the result will be presented. The method would be a very promising design procedure which needs to be implemented during the construction stage. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.