Expansive Soil
Expansive Soil
Expansive Soil
Since the upper shaft is in direct contact with the expansive clay, a key
concern is that the expansive clay is capable of gripping the sides of the
drilled pier shaft and pulling it entirely out of the bearing stratum socket, or
even pulling it apart.
In the case of typical drilled pier shafts poured directly against expansive soil
the geotechnical engineer's soil report should include design values, to be
used by the structural engineer, for the following:
i.
ii.
iii.
The gripping principle makes it readily apparent that when dealing with
straight shafts drilled in expansive soil the following rules apply:
a) The smaller the diameter of the pier the less surface area of the pier
exists for expansive soils to grip and push on. Therefore, within
economic reason the shaft should be the smallest practical size
necessary to support the load of the structure.
b) It's desirable to spread the piers out as far as practical and to apply as
much dead load on each pier as possible. The more dead load there is
holding the pier down the less the possibility of upheaval. The goal is
to have more dead load on the pier than the calculated upheaval force
caused by the expansive soil material. However, this isn't always
possible at lightly loaded areas (such as porches and other
appendages) but, as a rule, it should be attempted.
c) Drilled piers must be reinforced with extra vertical reinforcing steel to
prevent being pulled apart wherever expansive soil forces exceed the
dead load. It's typical to reinforce drilled shafts even if calculations
don't indicate the need for reinforcement. The structural engineer
should design the reinforcement based on uplift forces predicted by a
geotechnical engineer. It has been customary to rely on minimum
reinforcing steel percentages, however, this approach isn't always
reliable.
In expansive clay the general rule-of-thumb is to use a minimum
area of reinforcing steel equal to 1.0% of the area of concrete.
However, more reinforcing may be required if expansive soil forces
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exert a tensile force on the pier greater than the resistance of the
minimum steel requirements.
d) The bottom of the pier must be anchored into the bearing stratum a
sufficient depth to prevent pull-out from expansive clay uplift forces.
This anchorage depth should be designed by a structural engineer
based on the negative skin friction value given by a geotechnical
engineer.
e) Where reinforcing steel is required to resist uplift forces, lap splices in
the steel should be long enough to develop the ultimate tensile
strength of the reinforcing. These splice lengths should be designed by
the structural engineer.
f) Connecting dowels, extending from the tops of the piers, should extend
a sufficient distance above and below the connection to develop the
ultimate strength of the reinforcing in tension. This is a prudent
practice due to the possibility that swelling clay will exert uplift forces
on the grade beam or wall supported by the pier, even if the beam or
wall is detailed to be isolated from the soil.
There have been many cases of foundation beams pulling apart from piers in
spite of having an isolating void space designed under the beam.
BELLED PIERS:
Have the same characteristics as skin friction piers, except that they depend
only on end bearing. The bottom of the pier is "belled out" by under-reaming
to a diameter two to three times larger than the pier shaft, in order to
provide additional bearing area on the bearing stratum. This system is most
commonly used in areas where competent shale or limestone is
uneconomically deep. An expansive soil layer might itself serve as the
bearing stratum for a belled pier. Weathered shale, for example, is often
quite expansive yet strong enough to support piers.
The major requirement here is to extend the bottom of the pier an adequate
distance below the zone of seasonal moisture change to minimize its effect.
Even so, settlements with this system are generally greater; especially where
the bearing material is clay or sand. It's not my intent to discuss all of the
construction criteria necessary to construct belled pier foundation systems,
but to point out that they are sometimes used and that all of the
requirements listed previously for skin friction piers constructed in expansive
soil also apply to belled piers. One additional requirement is that belled piers
must be anchored into the soil below the zone of seasonal moisture change.
Predictions for the depth of the seasonal moisture change and
recommendations for the amount of anchorage must be obtained from the
geotechnical engineer.
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