Analysis of mechanical behavior of an expansive soil from the oil province of Urucu-AM for paving / Análise do comportamento mecânico de um solo expansivo da província petrolífera de Urucu-AM para fins de pavimentação

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

The establishment of transportation infrastructure is critical to the development of the Urucu- AM region, a newly developed oil exploration area in the Amazonas state. The construction of such infrastructure is challenging due to the lack of suitable materials for the construction pavement base and subbase courses and adverse weather conditions, with alternating heavy rainfall and drought periods. Besides the shortage of suitable granular material, the presence of expansive soils is often verified. The presence of expansive soils associated with inadequate moisture content during compaction, results in the occurrence of cracks in the pavements, drastically reducing its performance and lifetime. A quantitative understanding of this type of problem requires the analysis of the interaction between the unsaturated soil surface and the atmosphere and the study the mechanical behavior (stress-strain) of unsaturated soil. Such understanding requires the determination of the variations in soil moisture and total volume. The quantification of tensile stresses also requires the establishment or evaluation of the constitutive relations of the unsaturated expansive soils involved. Experiments were conducted in the laboratory with the objective of characterizing the hydraulic and mechanical behavior of expansive soils from Urucu-AM. Chemical, physical and mineralogy characterization tests were carried out for the soil. Geotechnical characterization and Proctor compaction tests and compression were performed. To study the soil in the unsaturated condition, the main focus of this work, tests were performed using the filter paper technique and the axis translation technique under oedometric conditions. For the suction controlled oedometric tests, a cell developed specially for this purpose was employed. The oedometer allows for the independent control of vertical stress and matric suction and the monitoring of the variation of moisture and total volume study. State surfaces for void ratio, degree of saturation and gravimetric moisture content were determined. The results obtained show the expected mechanical behavior of the soil under wetting paths.

ASSUNTO(S)

expansive soils solos não saturados pavimentos unsaturated soils geotecnica sucção pavements suction solos expansivos

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