Consolidation and Settlement behavior of Residual lateritic soils of Western Ethiopia (The case of Tongo-Begi-Mugi Road Project, Contarct-1, Tongo-Gidami)
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Date
2015-03
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Compressibility of soils is one of the basic Engineering properties of Soils, and it mostly occurs through the
process of consolidation. Consolidation is a time dependent process in which expulsion of water from a soil
mass occurs due to the application of stress on it. Consequently, there exist change in volume in the vertical
direction of the soil mass and this difference in thickness results the settlement of the structures constructed
above the soil. On the other hand, degree of consolidation and extent of settlement varies with types of soils.
Therefore, on this study an effort was made to reach the unique behaviour of residual laterite soils with
regard to consolidation and settlement properties focusing on the western Ethiopia which is rich of such soils.
To achieve the intended objective of the research, papers, journals and different books have been scrutinized
under literature review, samples from the research area were collected, and then laboratory tests for index
properties and primary consolidation have been carried out using disturbed and undisturbed samples
respectively.
From the test results, it has been observed that index properties of lateritic soils greatly are affected by pretest
treatment and manipulation, and in the case of consolidation and settlement behaviours, laterite soils at
intermediate and high stress levels depict very similar behavior to transported soils, but at the initial phase
the lateritic soils behave as if overconsolidated due to their cementation bond whereas transported soils show
overconsolidation due to the past stress history
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Civil Engineering