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Extensive damage to the structures founded on expansive soils can be reduced using different techniques. Among these techniques, replacement of the expansive soil with a non-expansive soil is considered as one of the most popular. The main objective of the present work is to investigate the effectiveness of the replacement method under typical buildings. The finite element software ABAQUS was implemented in the present study in order to analyze the surface heave and the differential heave between the footings of a typical building. The present investigation considers the variation in replacement layer thickness, stiffness, and permeability. The soil-structure interaction was also considered. The present numerical results show a significant effect of the replacement soil thickness and permeability on the heave and differential heave. Reducing the replacement soil permeability results in significant reduction of the heave and the differential heave under different replacement soil thicknesses.

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