Pile foundation for a light

weight building on
expansive soil

Outline

Introduction
Expansive soil
Theoretical wok
Experimental field work
Experimental lab work
Conclusion
Recommendations
References

Introduction
Expansive Soils
What is an "Expansive Soil"?

Many plastic clays swell considerably when water is added to them and
then shrink
with the loss of water. Foundations constructed on such clays are subjected
to large
uplifting forces caused by the swelling. This change in volume can exert
enough force on a building or other structure to cause damage .

Cracked foundations, floors and basement walls are typical types of damage
done by swelling soils.

The shrinkage can remove support from buildings or other structures and
result in damaging subsidence. Fissures in the soil can also develop. These
fissures can facilitate the deep penetration of water when moist conditions
or runoff occurs.

Expandable, Shrink-Swell, Heavable Soils?

Expandable soils are referred to by many
names . "Expandable soils", "expansive clays",
"shrink-swell soils" and heavable soils" are
some of the many names used for these
materials.

Expansive Soils Map

Expansive clays cover large parts of the United States,
South America, Africa, Australia, and India. In the United
States, these clays are predominant in Texas, Oklahoma,
and the upper Missouri Valley .

In general, expansive clays have liquid limits and

plasticity indices greater than about 40 and 15,
respectively. As noted, the increase and decrease in
moisture content causes clay to swell and shrink.

The depth in a soil to which periodic changes of moisture

occur is usually referred to as the active zone. The depth of
the active zone varies, depending on the location of the site.
In some clays and clay shale's in the western United States,
the depth of the active zone can be as much as 15 m. The
active-zone depth can easily be determined by plotting the
liquidity index against the depth of the soil profile over several
seasons

Shrinkage cracks can extend deep into the active zone. Figure
below shows interconnected shrinkage cracks extending from
the ground surface into the active zone in an expansive clay.

Introduction
It is well recognized that swelling of expansive
soils may cause significant distress and severe
damage to overlying structures.
For a given expansive clay with known initial
conditions, structural uplift due to soil expansion
and the extent of the induced damage decrease
with increasing sustained structure load.
For reinforced concrete buildings with strip
and/or isolated footings, a differential uplift
movement of 2 cm is generally considered to be
acceptable (Chen 1975).

Introduction
The micropile technique is based on inserting smalldiameter steel piles (75 to 250 mm in diameter) in
pre-drilled holes of larger diameter in an expansive
soil which are then filled with compacted sand to
improve the frictional resistance of the micropiles.
Small pullout displacement, in the range of 5 to 15
mm, is enough to fully mobilize the frictional
resistance of the micropiles with respect to the sand.
With low-frictional-strength soil (clay) as a bulk
material, a 15-mm thickness of sand around the
reinforcement (steel strips) is sufficient to increase
the interfacial shearing resistance to that of sand as
the bulk material, Sridharam et al. (1989) .

Introduction
During micropile uplift loading, the sand
adjacent to the interface tends to dilate. This
dilation is not free to occur, and a horizontal
boundary normal stress develops to resist
partially this dilation. The magnitude of this
horizontal boundary stress (Pb) is added to the
initial horizontal stress and to the generated
lateral swelling pressure, and thus sufficient
anchorage force is developed to counteract the
effect of the induced vertical swelling pressure.
This mechanism controls the upward movement
of lightweight structures, for which a simplified
analytical formulation is presented in this paper.

Introduction
For piles supported in sand, both the
interface
thickness
and
the
displacement required to mobilize
fully the frictional resistance appear
to be size-independent, and changes
in stresses and volumetric strain
occur within the interface thickness
(Turner and Kulhawy, 1994).

Theoretical wok
Effect of sand dilation
The boundary stress (Pb) required to prevent
sand dilation completely during uplift loading
is indicated by Equation (1-a), assuming
elastic plain strain conditions and assuming
that the interface acts as a thick-wall cylinder.
Pb = EksA
Pb
E
K
s

...................

(1-a)

: The boundary stress .

: is an assumed modulus related to the expansion of sand particles.
: is a constant of proportionality.
: is the induced shear strain in the sand adjacent to the micropile.

Theoretical wok
Effect of sand dilation

A=

(1-b)

a : inner radius of the interface (outer radius of the

micropile)
b :outer radius of the interface
b= a + t
where t is the interface thickness
t = 7.5 mm as average value for drilled shafts
(Turner and Kulhawy 1994)
: is Poissons ratio for the sand

Theoretical wok
Effect of sand dilation
Figure 1 shows
the variation of
the parameter A
in Equation (1-a)
for
assumed
interface
thicknesses
of
2.5 mmand 1
mm.

Theoretical wok
Effect of sand dilation

The horizontal boundary stress Pb,

increases
with
decreasing
pile
diameter, an effect that becomes
significant for pile diameter less than
250 mm (i.e., for micropiles).

The boundary stress increases with

increasing pile surface roughness.

Theoretical wok
Effect of sand dilation
The
behavior of sand adjacent to micropiles

during loading deviates from elastic behavior

and thus Equations (1-a, b) should be
evaluated qualitatively just to investigate the
effect of sand dilation as a function of
micropilediameter on a relative scale.
The contribution of sand dilation to the
effective radial stress,r, can be predicted from
the following equation, which was developed
from simple cavity expansion theory and
laboratory test data (Jardine et al., 1998).

Theoretical wok
Effect of sand dilation

(2)

: change in radial stress due to sand dilation

G
: Shear modulus of sand
: average surface roughness
r
: micropile radius.

Lo Presti (1987) has suggested the following

correlation for G, which originates from small
strain testing and gives a representative
value :
=
(3)
.

: atmospheric pressure (101 KPa)

: relative density of the sand
: effective confining stress
S
: constant ( suggested value 400 for clean silica and sand )
c
: constant ( suggested value 0.7 for clean silica and sand )
n
: constant ( suggested value 0.5 for clean silica and sand )

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation
Figure 2 shows a steel micropile of outer
diameter D inserted to a depth L in a
predrilled hole of larger diameter in
expansive clay. The clearance between
the outside surface of the micropile and
the expansive clay is filled with
compacted dense sand. The upper
section of the micropile is embedded in
a rigid foundation with a contact area A f
bearing directly on the expansive clay.
Upon clay wetting, a vertical-swelling
pressure Psv is developed which tends
to push the foundation upward and
therefore tends to retract the micropiles
from the surrounding sand.

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

As
shown in Figure 2, the downward
frictional resistance offered by the
micropile has three components:
1. The lateral (horizontal) stress due to
the overburden pressure plus the
effect of sand compaction around the
micropile. This component is given by:
(4)
...

: the initial earth pressure coefficient (eq. 5)

: unit weight
z
: depth below the ground level

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

: friction angle
: dry unit weight of the compacted sand
: minmum dry unit weight of the compacted sand

2. The lateral (horizontal) swelling pressure Psl

acting normal to the outside surface of
micropile.
3. The increase in lateral horizontal stress due
to sand dilation induced by clay wetting. A
reasonably
accurate
estimate
for
this
component can be obtained from Equation (2).

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

resultant of these three forces can be

The

obtained by the following integration:

(6)

: pile length
: lateral swelling pressure.
: friction angle at the sand- micropile interface at failure.

D
N

: pile diameter.
: number of micro piles.

By assuming that , , and are constant, the

integration in eq. (7) reduced to be:
(7)
..

( : average effective overburden pressure at L/2 depth

: total lateral servisce

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation
The
magnitude of developed in the field was
found to equal the constant-volume interface
friction angle , which is mainly controlled by
pile surface roughness and the effective grain
size of sand (D50).
the magnitude of was also found to be a
slightly lower than the constant-volume friction
angle of sand and for practical purposes, can
be determined from (Randolph et al., 1994):
- ..(8)

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

amount of heave
The

experienced by a
footing of area Afresting directly on
expansive clay without the use of micropile
reinforcement can be expressed as:
..

(9)

: vertical swelling pressure at depth z.

P : the effective stress at depth z below the ground surface plus the increase in
vertical
stress P due to any applied dead load pressure on the footing.
E : an assumed modulus related to both the expansion and compression of soil
particles
H : thickness of expansive clay beneath footing and within the active zone.

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

amount of heave exhibited by a footing

The

of area Af resting directly on an expansive

clay reinforced with micropiles consists of
two components and may be expressed as:
..

(10)

: the total upward movement occurring in the zone of reinforcement along

the embedded depth L of the micropiles
: the total upward movement of the swelling clay occurring outside the zone of
the reinforced clay (i.e., along H - L).

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

(11-a)
(11-b)

Where
: foundation plane area.

The percent reduction in foundation

heave RH due to soil reinforcement
with micropiles may then be written
as:
.(12)

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation
Assuming
a constant value of for a given

depth, and Equations (9) and (10) may be

substituted into Equation (12), with R taken
from Equation (7), to obtain:
(13-a)
..........(13-b)
..........

Where:
: area ratio
: lateral service area of the micropile.
: foundation plane area.
: balanced area ratio.
L : pile length.
K : ratio of lateral to vertical pressure.

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

Replacing the integration in eq. (13-a)

by :
(14-a)
Then
;
(14-b)
Where
..........

..........

: equivalent average distribution of along H

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

For

a square footing (with a plan area

of ) and an assumed vertical stress
distribution of 2:1 due to the dead
load pressure Pdl the following simple
equation may be used to estimate :
(15)

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation
Figure
3 shows a graphical

interpretation of Equation
(14-b). A sliding triangle
with a base equal to unity
and a height equal to
describes Equation (14-b).
Figure 3, can be used to
find the magnitude of for
a
prescribed
percent
reduction in heave and a
given ratio.

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation
The
area ratio required for complete control of
uplift movement will be designated (maximum
area ratio) and can be obtained by substituting
RH = 1 in Equation (14-b):
(16)
.

It should be noted that for a given expansive clay

and given sand properties, the smaller diameter
of the micropiles, the smaller area ratio required
to control (completely and partially) the uplift
movement.

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

Figure 4 leads to the

conclusion that a
larger number of
micropiles of smaller
diameter is better
than
a
smaller
number
of
micropiles of larger
diameter for a given
lateral surface area
As .

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation
Figure 5 shows that
for a given As, the
percent reduction in
heave increases as
micropile
diameter
decreases. Note that
Figure 5 resembles
Figure 1 and reflects
the effect of sand
dilation, which is a
function of micropile
diameter.

Theoretical wok
Analytical formulation

The previous formulation presumes

that the dead load pressure is
transmitted directly from the footing
to the soil and not carried by the
micropiles then transferred to the
surrounding soil (in a similar fashion
to piles). The micropiles are assumed
to act only as anchors to the footing.

Theoretical wok
Estimation of lateral and vertical swelling pressures
Both lateral and vertical
swelling pressures are
important parameters in
the design of micropile
reinforcements.
If the data shown in
Figure
6
become
available, it will be
possible to estimate the
vertical
and
lateral
pressures which would
be exerted by the clay
upon wetting for various
amounts
of
vertical
swelling (Komornica and
Zeitlen, 1965).

Theoretical wok
Design methodology
Example:
Square footing in Figure 7.
Supports the load of a one-story structure.
Plan area of 2 m*2 m .
Presumptive allowable soil pressure of 200 kPa.
The footing is designed to support a structural load of four
stories in the future.
Because of the large plan area of the footing, the applied
dead load pressure from a single story is small (about 25 kPa).
The embedded depth of the footing is 2 m below ground level.
Basic soil tests yield the average soil properties shown in
Figure 7, and it is assumed that the data shown in Figure 6 are
applicable.

Theoretical wok
Design methodology

Theoretical wok
Design methodology

1- Estimate the expansion under the applied

dead load and overburden pressure (without

micropile reinforcement).
From Eq. (15) ,=17.3*3+ .
From Figure 6, the swell percent
corresponding to kPa is about 5.1%. This
average swell percent amounts to 10.2 cm
total heave [(5.1/100)(200 cm)=10.2 cm].

Theoretical wok
Design methodology
2 Estimate the required reduction in heave (RH). For a
tolerable uplift movement of 2 cm [average tolerable
percent swell=(2/200)(100%)=1%],
the estimated RH =((10.2-2)/10.2)*100%=80.4%

SuwaylehSand is used with the following properties

()
()
Stress level 50-100

-=

Theoretical wok
Design methodology

3- Estimate the vertical and lateral

swell pressures associated with a
tolerable expansion of 2 cm (1%
tolerable swell).
From Figure 6, the values of vertical
and lateral pressures for 1% swell are
245 kPa and 216 kPa, respectively.

Theoretical wok
Design methodology
4 Estimate the balanced area ratio from Equation (13-b)
using the following input parameters:
as estimated from Equation (5) =15.75
= =400 =???????? 79 MPa(from Equation (3)
Vertical swell pressure = 245 kPa, at 2 cm heave (1% swell)
Lateral swell pressure = 216 kPa, at 2 cm heave (1% swell)
K0 216=245 0:88
Rcal 15 mm (typical value for steel piles)
The above calculations give rb 1:34, assuming a
micropile diameter of
15 cm.

Theoretical wok
Design methodology
5. From Equation (14-b) or Figure 3, the calculated area ratio
required to reduce heave by 80.4% is = (0.56)= 0.76.

6. The total lateral area As of the micropiles required to reduce

foundation heave by 80.4% with safety factor of 1.25 is As =
(1.25)(0.76)(2 *2) = 3:8 m2.
With an embedded length L=H = 2m and a diameter of 15 cm
for the micropiles, the required number of micropiles is 4.
Figure 8, shows the final design.

Field Work

Description of the soil at the site :

The site used for this study is located in the

eastern part of Irbid city, northern Jordan.
The soil profile in this area of the city
consists of a clay layer of thickness
varying from 1 m to more than 10 m.

The soil is classified as CH according to the Unified

Soil Classification System (USCS). The soil has
high swelling potential due to its fine grain size,
mineral composition and plasticity characteristics.
The OCR of the soil at the top may reach as high as
10 .
to determine the swelling characteristics (swell
percentage and swell pressure) an oedometer
apparatus was used AT :
1. = = 13.8 kN/m3
2. initial moisture content varying between
15% and 35%.
max

The swell test results are presented in Table

2.

Micropiles and footings description

Rough-surface steel pipes were used as
micropiles :
1. Outside diameter 6.5 cm.
2. surface roughness greater than 100 m.
3. The total length of each steel pipe is 3
m.
Holes 16.5 cm in diameter were drilled up to
3.0 m depth.

The annular space around the micropiles was

filled with compacted sand to improve the
frictional resistance of the steel micropiles.
The top part of each micropile was fastened to
the reinforced concrete footing.
Concrete square footings were used, with
dimensions 1.0 m X 1.0 m X 0.4 m,
reinforced with five steel bars (10 mm in
diameter) in each direction.
.

Four footings supported by one, two,

three and four micropiles
respectively were constructed at the
site.
A control footing without micropiles
was also constructed for comparison

Sand properties
Poorly graded sand.
The sand was placed around the micropiles
in the pre-drilled holes and compacted
using a special steel hammer weighing
9.81 kN.
The hammer was dropped freely from a
height of 30 cm to compact the sand
around the micropile.
The sand was placed in three layers around
the micropiles

the target relative density of 70%.

The friction angle () of the sand in
the field was equal to 41.

Swell measurement in the

field
Two weeks after the concrete footings had been placed in the
field, the site was flooded with water and measurements of
the upward movement for each footing were monitored and
recorded with time.
A level device was used to measure the upward movement of
the footings with accuracy equal to 1 mm as follows.
(a) A staff reading was taken for each corner of the square
footing, and the average value was computed.
(b) A staff reading was taken for the monitoring deep datum
point, which was assumed to be stable.
(c) The difference between the average staff reading for the
footing and that for the datum point was taken as the
average upward movement of the footing.

Test results and analysis

1. In general, it can be stated that the reduction in upward

movement of the footings increases as the number of
micropiles increases.
2. The maximum measured percentage reduction in heave
was 40% for the footing with four micropiles.
3. It should be pointed out that no reduction in upward
movement was observed when the footing was reinforced
with only one micropile.
4. Also, by comparing the percentage reduction in upward
movement of F2, F3 and F4, it can be concluded that the
rate of increase of the percentage reduction in heave is
not constant with increasing number of micropiles.

Nusier and Alawneh method

The theoretical part !

Comparison of measured and predicted

percentage reduction in heave
Table 5 summarises the predicted percentage
reduction in heave by Nusier and Alawneh
(2004).
A plot of measured against predicted percentage
reduction in heave is shown in Fig. 6.
The predicted values for percentage reduction in
heave are
in fair agreement with the measured values.

It should be pointed out that, in calculating

the percentage reduction in heave using
the Nusier and Alawneh (2004) method,
the lateral swell pressure is assumed to be
small (i.e. K = 0) because the soil is
highly overconsolidated , and the tension
cracks absorb any lateral swell.

Conclusions
1. Generally, the experiments showed
that micropile reinforcement is
effective in reducing the upward
movement of the tested footings.
2. The percentage reduction in heave
increases with an increase in the
number of micropiles.

3. No reduction in heave was observed for the footing

reinforced with only one micropile. However, the rate
of increase in the percentage reduction in heave with
increasing number of micropiles is not constant.
4. Comparison of the measured and predicted
percentage
reduction in heave using the method proposed by
Nusier and Alawneh (2004) indicated it yields
acceptable
results.

Experimental laboratory
work
Introduction
Lightweight RC structures over expansive soils may be
subjected to significant upward movement which may cause
undesirable cracks in the structure. Repair activities for these
cracks should be repeated annually and in some cases the cost
is significant.
Different design alternatives for foundation of lightweight
structures over expansive soil to minimize the effects of volume
change of expansive soils on the performance of such
structures.
In this paper, micropile reinforcement as a technique to control
upward movement of lightweight structures over expansive soil
was
investigated
experimentally.

Experimental laboratory work

Materials and Method
Soil description
(clay)
The soil used in this
study was brought
from the eastern
part of Irbid city.

Experimental laboratory work

Materials and Method
Sand used
The sand used in this study was poorly graded sand commercially known as Sweileh sand. ( d max =
17.6 kN/m3, d min = 14.5 kN/m3).
The sand is placed around the micropiles at a relative density equal to 75% (at dry unit weight, d =
16.5 kN/m3).
The friction angle of the sand, , is about 37.
The constant volume friction angle, of the sand, cv = 30.
The friction angle at failure, f, between the sand and the rough micropiles was taken to be equal to
30.
For the smooth micropiles f was taken to be 4 8 less than the constant volume friction angle of sand.

Experimental laboratory work

Materials and Method
Steel box, model footings and micropiles
The experimental set-up consisted of the following items:
(a) A rigid steel box of dimensions 50 cm 50 cm 35 cm.
(b) Three rigid steel plates of dimensions 25 cm 25 cm 1 cm to
model the isolated footings in the field.
(c) Smooth and roughened model micropile manufactured in different
diameters (8, 12, 14, 16 and 18 mm).
- The centre line average roughness, Rcal, for the smooth micropiles
was 5 m. For the rough micropiles, Rcal was larger (greater than 100 m).
(d) Four dial gauges, sensitive to 0.01 mm, placed at the four corners
of each steel plate to measure the upward movement of the footings
upon clay wetting.

Experimental laboratory work

Materials and Method
Steel box, model footings and micropiles

Experimental laboratory
work
Materials and Method
Soil preparation
To prepare the soil before testing, the air dry soil was first
pulverized using a rubber hammer, and sieved through sieve No. 4.
The soil was then mixed thoroughly with a predetermined amount of
water to achieve the required amount of moisture content.
Then the soil was compacted in four layers using a special flatbottomed hammer (hammer weight=50 N, height of drop = 30 cm).
The number of blows per layer was controlled by the target dry
density of the soil in the box which was 14.13 KN/m3.
the final surface of the soil was leveled off, and the 2.5 cm diameter
steel rods were withdrawn from the compacted soil leaving holes
with the same diameter.
The final compacted thickness of the soil in the box was 20 cm.
Note that the 2.5 cm steel rods were used to form predrilled
holes in the compacted clay with the same diameter.

Experimental laboratory work

Materials and Method
Test procedure
1) The model micropiles were inserted in the centre of the 2.5 cm
diameter predrilled holes then compacted sand was placed around
the model micropiles.
2) The model footing (steel plate) was placed on the flat surface
of the compacted soil and at the centre of the box.
3) The tops of the micropiles (one, two or four micropiles) were
fastened to the model footing.
4) Four dial gauges were carefully placed at the four corners of the
model footing to measure the average upward movement upon
clay
wetting.

Experimental laboratory work

Materials and Method
Test procedure
5) Sufficient water was added to
the compacted soil in the box
and swell readings were
recorded over a period of
time to reach the maximum
stabilized Swell percentage.

Experimental laboratory
work
Experimental Programme

Experimental laboratory work

Measured percentage reduction in
heave
The percentage reduction in heave for each combination of
the test variables, 12)) calculated from equation

Experimental laboratory work

Analysis of the test results
Effect of micropile diameter:
The test results show that as
the micropile diameter
increased, the percentage
Reduction in heave, RH (%),
increased.

Experimental laboratory work

Analysis of the test results
Effect of number of micropiles:
For both the smooth and rough micropiles, the
percentage reduction in heave increased with increasing
number of micropiles.

Experimental laboratory work

Analysis of the test results
Effect of surface roughness
In all cases, the rough interfaces
developed percentage
reductions in heave that
were greater than the
smooth interface.

Experimental laboratory work

In order to examine the effectiveness of using micropiles as a
method for heave control, the results from all tests conducted in
this study are plotted in Figure 10 in a normalized fashion.
The percentage reduction in heave,
RH (%), increased as the normalized ratio
increased ( / b)( L/H).
(This result is consistent with the proposed
method by Nusier and Alawneh).
The maximum measured percentage
reduction in heave in this study was
87.2% . This value was achieved under the
following conditions: [high value of
( = 0.72), and rough micropiles].

Experimental laboratory work

Comparison of measured and predicted
RH (%)
It can be stated that the calculated values of
percentage reduction in heave were in fair
agreement with those measured in the
experiments
conducted
in
this
study.

Experimental laboratory work

Results from large-scale experiments
The micropiles were placed at the centre of drilled holes 16.5 cm in diameter drilled
down to 3 m below the ground surface.
The annular space around the micropile was filled with sand compacted to a relative
density of 70%.
The heads of the steel micropiles were tied to the reinforced concrete footings (1m 1
m 0.4 m).
Four footings were constructed with one, two, three and four micropiles, respectively;
another footing was constructed without micropile reinforcement, and was taken as a
reference case to investigate the effect of micropiles in heave control.
A level device was used to measure the upward movement of the footings with time
after flooding the site
Overall, the comparison between measured and predicted percentage reduction in
heave showed reasonable agreement for both small- and large-scale experiments.

Experimental laboratory work

CONCLUSION
(a) In general, the micropiles employed in this study were found
to be effective in reducing the upward movement of the
model footings.
(b) The effectiveness of micropiles as a technique to control
upward movement of a lightweight structure over expansive
clay can be improved by using rough micropiles .
(c) The percentage reduction in heave was found to increase
with increasing dimensionless ratio.