A State-of-the-Art Review and Numerical Study of Reinforced Expansive Soil with Granular Anchor Piles and Helical Piles

Abstract

Expansive soils exist in many countries worldwide, and their characteristics make them exceedingly difficult to engineer. Due to its significant swelling and shrinkage characteristics, expansive soil defies many of the stabilization solutions available to engineers. Differential heave or settlement occurs when expansive soil swells or shrinks, causing severe damage to foundations, buildings, roadways, and retaining structures. In such soils, it is necessary to construct a foundation that avoids the adverse effects of settlement. As a result, building the structure’s foundations on expansive soil necessitates special consideration. Helical piles provide resistance to uplift in light structures. However, they may not fully stabilize foundations in expansive soils. A granular anchor pile is another anchor technique that may provide the necessary resistance to uplift in expansive soils using simpler methods. This review and numerical study investigate the fundamental foundation treatments for expansive soils and the behavior of granular anchors and helical piles. Results indicate that granular anchor piles performed better than helical piles for uplift and settlement performance. For heave performance, the granular anchor and helical piles perform nearly identically. Both achieve heave reductions greater than 90% when L/H > 1.5 and D = 0.6 m.

Comparative Analysis of Helical Piles and Granular Anchor Piles for Foundation Stabilization in Expansive Soil: A 3D Numerical Study

“…The present study employs the same methodology and materials properties as Alnmr et al [69]. For further details, please refer to [69].…”

“…The present study employs the same methodology and materials properties as Alnmr et al [69]. For further details, please refer to [69]. Figure 8 illustrates a cross-sectional view of unreinforced and reinforced soil with helical and granular anchor piles.…”

“…Figure 9 presents a detailed illustration of the expansive soil layer, sand layer, pile, footing, and the employed mesh. The numerical simulation incorporates seven distinct phases, each playing a crucial role in comprehensively analyzing the behavior of the system: [69].…”

Experimental Investigation of the Soil-Water Characteristic Curves (SWCC) of Expansive Soil: Effects of Sand Content, Initial Saturation, and Initial Dry Unit Weight

“…The primary application of the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is to evaluate the performance of unsaturated soil properties for a range of geotechnical engineering applications [1]. One common application of SWCCs in geotechnical engineering is to assess the hydraulic properties necessary to simulate water flow through unsaturated soils [2][3][4][5][6]. The SWCC shape reflects the soil's water retention capacity and porosity characteristics, enabling the estimation of various engineering properties such as hydraulic conductivity, shear strength, and diffusion coefficient [7,8].…”

Novel Insights in Soil Mechanics: Integrating Experimental Investigation with Machine Learning for Unconfined Compression Parameter Prediction of Expansive Soil

“…Nelson and Miller [7] assert that expansive soils may result in greater financial losses than earthquakes or floods. In addressing this challenge, the behavior of expansive soils has been studied in numerous studies by adding different materials to improve their characteristics [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Although these studies have shown that soil characteristics can be improved via the addition of materials, many unresolved questions remain.…”