Prediction of collapse behaviour in soil

ABSTRACT The drastic decrease in volume of a natural, unsaturated soil deposit or compacted fill that occurs upon wetting at virtually constant total stresses is termed “collapse”. Several methods can be found in the literature that predict collapse behavior based on easily obtained soil parameters. Nevertheless, discrepancies were reported among the results of these methods. This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on carefully conducted laboratory prepared collapsible soils in the oedometer apparatus. These results were used to develop an empirical model for predicting soil collapse in terms of the initial dry unit weight, initial water content and the soil gradation. The values predicted by the proposed model agreed well with the experimental results of the present investigation and those available in the literature.