United States Department of Transportation
i
Implementation of centrifuge testing of expansive soils for pavement design.
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2017-03-01
[PDF-26.27 MB]
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Abstract:The novel centrifuge-based method for testing of expansive soils from project 5-6048-01 was implemented into
use for the determination of the Potential Vertical Rise (PVR) of roadways that sit on expansive subgrades. The
centrifuge method was modified to allow for testing of both undisturbed and reconstituted specimens as well as
to match the boundary conditions of the state of practice laboratory method, ASTM D4546. The test was used to
expand the expansive soils database through a number of sites east of the Balcones Fault Zone in Central Texas
in order to give designers a better understanding of the characteristics of soils in the region and to compare
against results from Tex-124-E. The test was further used to test field specimens from various sites to illustrate
the need for either uncontaminated bulk specimens or undisturbed specimens and to develop a new method for
sites with limited testing. Instrumentation and monitoring of the heave at field sites were used to validate the
testing method by showing similar moisture content changes in the field section as in laboratory specimens as
well as showing a field site in which Tex-124-E misidentifies a site that sits on a non-expansive subgrade. The
project provided a new method to calculate the PVR of a site using real data, expanded the database of soils to
include new soils and look at heterogeneity between soil horizons, and analyzed field results to validate the
results from laboratory experiments.
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