Summary
A research project on the stability of temporary trenches in unsaturated soil is carried out in Belgium. The main objective of the project is to evaluate the seasonal variations of suction in the soil and to quantify the consequences of these suction variations on trench stability. Within the framework of the research, a full scale instrumented test trench with vertical sides has been excavated in June 2004 at the site of BBRI, characterized by quaternary loam (Limelette, Belgium), to compare calculations with full-scale observations. As expected first failures occurred during the winter, when suction in the soil was minimal. This paper presents the details of this experiment.
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References
BBRI – Research report (2005) Stabilité des talus: Méthodes de calcul avec prise en compte du degré de saturation dué et déduction de règles pratiques pour l’exécution des tranchées et fouilles temporaires, biennale 2003–2005
Fredlund, Rahardjo (1993) Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils, John Wiley & Sons, USA 517 pp
Vanapalli, Fredlund (2000) Comparison of different procedures to predict unsaturated soil shear strength. In: Shackleford C, Houston SL, Chang N-Y (eds) Advances in Unsaturated Soils, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 99. Reston, American Society of Civil Engineers:195–209
Van Alboom, Whenham (2003) Soil investigation campaign at Limelette (Belgium): Results. In: Proc Symp on screw piles in sand – design & recent developments, May 7th 2003, Brussels
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© 2007 Springer-Verlag
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Whenham, V., De Vos, M., Legrand, C., Charlier, R., Maertens, J., Verbrugge, JC. (2007). Influence of Soil Suction on Trench Stability. In: Schanz, T. (eds) Experimental Unsaturated Soil Mechanics. Springer Proceedings in Physics, vol 112. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-69873-6_49
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-69873-6_49
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-69872-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69873-9
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