53:139 Foundations of Structures Supplemental Notes: Foundations on Weak and Compressible Soils

Foundations on Weak and/or

Compressible Soils
53:139 Foundation Engineering
The University of Iowa
C.C. Swan, Instructor

A. OVERVIEW

The difficult soil cases to be discussed involve foundations on:

I. Weak/Compressible Soils;
II. Collapsible Soils; and
III. Expansive Soils.
For each of these cases, an attempt will be made to identify the problem and its nature, and then to
discuss possible solutions when working with these difficult soils.

B. WEAK/COMPRESSIBLE SOILS
a. Clays/Silts/Peats
These types of soil deposits are often found near the mouths of rivers, along the perimeters of bays, and beneath
swamps or lagoons. Soil deposits with high organic content are often found in these low lying types of locations and
can be especially troublesome. Since land features in which these troublesome soils are typically found are low
lying, they are prone to flooding. Hence before buildings or roadways can be constructed on such soil deposits, the
grade level must be raised by adding compacted fill. However, adding significant amounts of compacted fill puts
significant loads on the soil which can cause significant settlements.

As an example, the New Jersey Meadowlands complex was constructed in the 1980’s on marshlands of the
Hackensack River in central New Jersey, just a few miles west of midtown Manhattan (NYC). Settlements observed
in the soft soil due to placement of fill were:
 0.25m during placement of the fill;
 0.12m during the construction phase; and
 0.10m over the ten following years.

b. Loose Saturated Sands

Loose saturated sand deposits that are located in seismically active regions are prone to liquefaction and settlements
during strong ground motion. A classic example occurred in the 1964 Niigata Earthquake in Japan. In this case,
many buildings situated on loose saturated sand deposits settled more than 1m during the earthquake, and others (in
particular an apartment building) tipped over on their sides. (Apartment buildings are not hydrodynamically stable
structures, and when the soil liquefies, they will “capsize.”

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53:139 Foundations of Structures C.C. Swan, Instructor

c. Strategies
a. Deep Foundations
One option is to support structures on deep foundations (piles
or caissons) which penetrate through the weak/ compressible
soils. Even when deep foundations are employed, however, it
is still generally necessary to import fill to raise the grade
level above the flooding level. Thus deep foundations must
be used in combination with fill placed on the weak/
compressible soils. This is a delicate situation which the
geotechnical engineer must recognize. (Fig. 1)

The potential difficulty is that after the deep foundations are

constructed, the weak/ compressible soil with fill placed upon
it will continue to undergo significant settlement. As the soil
settles, it tends to pull down on the deep foundations through
“negative skin friction” or “downdrag.” This can lead to
significant settlement of the deep foundations, and the
Figure 1. Deep foundations through
possibility of significant differential settlements. If pile caps
are used this can result in some piles being pulled out of the layer(s) of compressible soil.
cap. If this potential problem is anticipated, numerous steps
can be taken to avoid it.
a) The piles (if used) can be coated with a lubricating agent to reduce friction with the soil. (This would not
work with pier or caisson foundations).
b) Piles can be driven in large diameter predrilled shafts, but this assumes that the soil will not cave in.
c) Large diameter low displacement pipe piles can be driven through the weak/ compressible soils. The
interior soil plug can then be removed and smaller diameter end bearing piles driven inside of the open pipe
piles into the lower strata. This isolates the interior piles from the settling soil.
d) Wait until soils have consolidated before constructing the deep foundations.

b. Shallow Foundations

If shallow foundations are constructed on fills over

weak/compressible soils, the primary problem will be large
settlements. This problem can be mitigated by preloading the
weak/ compressible deposit before construction.
Due to the low permeability of the clay deposits, however, this
could take many years. To speed this process up, sand drains
are commonly used. Alternatively, one can build settlement
tolerant structures to accommodate potentially large
settlements. An example of a settlement tolerant building on
fill overlying a weak/ compressible deposit is the U.S.
Airways Terminal1 built at the LaGuardia Airport in New
York City during the 1980s (Figure 2). To raise the grade level
above that of Flushing Bay, this structure was built on 9m of
incinerated refuse fill which overlies a 24m deposit of soft
Fig. 2. Schematic of U.S. Airways terminal
organic clay in Flushing Bay. During construction, the soft
clay deposit settled approximately 2m due to the 9m of fill, constructed on shallow foundations
and an additional 0.45m of settlement was expected to have bearing on highly compressible soil layers.
occurred by 1999. The building was designed to accommodate
any differential in these settlements, however, using leveling jacks between floors and in the footings.

1
This terminal was originally built for Eastern Airlines but it went bankrupt before construction was completed.
U.S. Airways occupied the terminal in 1992.
53:139 Foundations of Structures Supplemental Notes: Foundations on Weak and Compressible Soils

c. Soil Improvement

Among the various strategies used when encountering extremely weak or compressible soil layers are the following:
 Removal and replacement. This method can be employed when: the poor soil deposit is relatively small; the
groundwater level is relatively deep; and good fill soil is readily available.
 Temporary Surcharge Fills. The idea here is to preload the weak/ compressible soil with a temporary
surcharge. The underlying weak/ compressible soil is allowed to consolidate under the surcharge (again
sand drains accelerate the process). The surcharge is removed before the proposed building construction
occurs. Since the building is constructed on overconsolidated soil the displacements are considerably
reduced.
 Vibrocompaction. This is particularly effective for loose sandy soils.
 Chemical stabilization. In the past, the weak clays and silts were often mixed with lime and the existing soil
pore fluid to cement the soil grains together, making the soil stronger and less compressible. Presently, the
trend in geotechnical engineering is away from using lime and toward using pulverized fly ash (pfa), which
is a processed waste product from coal fired electric power generating plants. Again, the effect is to cement
the soil grains together, increasing the soil strength and reducing both its compressibility potential
expansivity.

C. COLLAPSIBLE SOILS
1. General Characteristics
Collapsible soils are those that appear to be strong and stable in their natural (dry) state, but which rapidly
consolidate under wetting, generating large and often unexpected settlements. This can yield disastrous
consequences for structures unwittingly built on such deposits. Such soils are often termed “collapsible” or
“metastable” and the process of their collapsing is often called any of “hydro-consolidation”, “hydro-
compression”, or “hydro-collapse.” As Iowans, you should be particularly well aware of this problem, since
Iowa (along with Nebraska, Illinois, Colorado, and Missouri) has extensive deposits of “loess” which is
recognized as potentially collapsible. Collapsible soil deposits share two main features: (i) they are loose,
cemented deposits; and (ii) they are naturally quite dry. Loess soils consist primarily of silt sized particles
loosely arranged in a cemented honeycombed structure (Fig. 3). The loose structure is held together by small
amounts of water softening or water soluble cementing agents such as clay minerals and CaCO3. The
introduction of water dissolves or softens the bonds between the silt particles and allows them to take a denser
packing under any type of compressive loading.

a) Loose dry soil structure b) Densified soil structure after

before inundation inundation with water.

Fig. 3. Hydro‐collapsible soil before (a) and after (b) inundation with
water.

2. Deposit Mechanisms
Since collapsible soil deposits are necessarily “loose”, they are generally created by deposition mechanisms that
yield loose deposits. For example, alluvial (water deposited) and colluvial (gravity deposited) soils are usually
deposited loosely and in a saturated state. As the water eventually drains from these soils, the last amounts of
moisture are drawn by capillarity to the contact points between grains. As the water evaporates, minerals are left
behind at the soil contact points, cementing them together. Collapsible colluvial and alluvial soil deposits are

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53:139 Foundations of Structures C.C. Swan, Instructor

common in desert portions of the southwestern U.S. Deposits can range from depths of a few meters to tens of
meters. Collapses of 2 or 3 feet are common, and up to 15 feet have been reported. Wind deposited (aeolian) soils
are fine sands, volcanic ash tuffs, and loess. In particular, loess consists of clay-coated or bonded silt sized particles.
Collapsible loess deposits are characterized by high porosity n≥50% and low dry unit weights (d=70-90 pcf or 11-
14 kN/m3). Thick loess deposits of up to 60m are not unusual. Other soil deposits that are potentially collapsible are
residual soils formed by extensive weathering of parent materials. For example, weathering of granite can yield
loose collapsible soil deposits.

3. Testing & Identification

Once the geotechnical engineer recognizes the possibility that collapsible soils are present, tests are sometimes done
to quantify the collapse potential of the soils. If lab tests are to be performed, “undisturbed” samples must be
obtained using Shelby tubes. Once undisturbed samples are collected, two types of tests are generally performed:
(a) double oedometer tests; and (b) single odeometer tests. The oedometer, as you recall, is the apparatus in which
dry or wet stress-controlled confined compression or consolidation tests are performed on soil specimens.

a. Double Oedometer Test

In this test, two “identical” soil specimens are placed
in oedometers and subjected to confined compression
tests. One of the specimens is tested at natural in-
situ water content, which is generally quite low. The
other specimen is fully saturated before the test
begins, and then subjected to an identical
compression test. Two stress versus strain curves will
be generated, one for the “dry” soil and one for the
saturated soil. If the soil is strongly hydro
collapsible, the stress-strain response for the
saturated curve will be significantly different than
that of the dry soil (Figure 4). For a given applied
stress ’n, the strain offset w between the two curves
is called the hydro-collapse strain for that stress
level. Generally, for the dry specimen, there will be a
critical stress ’cr at which the loose structure breaks
down and beyond which the two curves converge. Fig. 4. Results of a double‐oedometer
test on a hydro‐collapsible soil.

b. Single Oedometer Test

As the name implies, the single oedometer test uses

only a single soil specimen. The procedure is as
follows:
1) An undisturbed sample is placed in the
oedometer at its natural (dry) moisture
content.
2) A small seating load is applied to the
specimen.
3) The soil is gradually loaded to the
anticipated field loading conditions.
4) At this stress level, the sample is then
inundated with water and allowed to
saturate. The resulting hydro collapse is
then observed.
5) Loading of the specimen is then continued
with consolidation permitted.
Fig. 5. Typical results from a single oedometer
The characteristic stress versus strain curve test on a hydro‐collapsible soil specimen.
53:139 Foundations of Structures Supplemental Notes: Foundations on Weak and Compressible Soils

generated from such a test is sketched in Fig. 5. Clearly, the larger the collapse strain w observed, the more
collapsible the soil is considered to be. Collapse strains on the order of 1% are considered to be mild, while those on
the order of say 30% are considered to be very severe.

4. Wetting Processes
Part of the obvious problem with hydro collapsible soils is that they tend to have relatively low natural in-situ water
contents. When development occurs on such soil deposits, the soil can be subjected to numerous sources of
additional wetting that will lead to an increase of its water content. Among the common artificial sources of wetting
associated with development are: (a) irrigation of landscaping and/or crops; (b) leakage from unlined canals,
pipelines, swimming pools, storage tanks, etc; (c) septic systems; and (d) changes in surface drainage of rainwater.
Minor artificial wetting is often confined only to the top few feet of soil. Sustained, long term leaks can lead to soil
wetting deep below the surface which in extreme circumstances can be quite serious and lead to enormous
settlements. As an example, a study was published by an investigator named Curtin in 1973 which involved large
scale wetting collapse tests performed on collapsible soils located in California’s San Joaquin Valley. After applying
continuous wetting to a 75m deep collapsible soil deposit for 484 days, the wetting front advanced to a depth of 45m
below the ground level. The resulting hydrocollapse settlement observed was 4.1m!

5. Precautions
When dealing with collapsible soils that will be subject to wetting depths of ≤ 2 meters, common measures are to:
i. prewet the soil;
ii. compact the soil using heavy rollers and heavy tamping.
iii. treat the soil with sodium silicate and/or calcium chloride solutions to provide cementing that is not water
soluble.
When dealing with collapsible soils subject to large wetting depths, then deep foundations through the collapsible
soils are commonly used.

REFERENCES:

1. Muckel, GB (editor) . Understanding Soil Risks and Hazards: Using Soil Survey to Identify Areas
With Risks and Hazards to Human Life and Property A report by the United States Department of
Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service and National Soil Survey Center, Lincoln,
Nebraska (2004). Available online at: ftp://ftp‐fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/NSSC/Soil_Risks/risk_low_res.pdf
2. Lawton EC, Fragaszy RJ, and Hetherington MD. "Review of Wetting-Induced Collapse in
Compacted Soil," Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, 118-9 (1992) 1376-94.
3. Coduto, DP (2005) Foundation Design: Principles and Practices 2nd Ed. Prentice‐Hall (1999).