EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON SOFT CLAY SOILS TO IMPROVE SETTLEMENT AND ULTIMATE STRESS USING THERMOS MECHANICAL LOADS

The electrothermal method was used to treat soft clay soil under load in this study. The experiment model was adopted to study settlement behavior. The effect of heat on settlement and maximum stress, of soft clay soils, were studied. The variables studied are the distance between the heaters, the heating time, and the temperature of the source. A model was used with dimensions (60 * 40 * 60) cm, and heaters were used in each model, and the power of each heater was 925 watts, and the number of models used was 37 models. The first examination was without heat treatment, and settlement was measured in it directly. As for the rest of the tests, heat treatment was used in it, and the tests were divided into two phases. The first stage is the heat treatment stage, and the second stage is the stage of placing the mechanical load on the soil. The mechanical load is weights placed on the soil through the footing. The tests were divided according to the research structure into three cases and according to the distance between the two heaters (20,30,40) cm. In each case, the tests are conducted according to the heating time, where the heating time was used (4,8,12) consecutive hours, and each time 4 tests were used at different temperatures (200,300,400,500) degrees Celsius. An improvement value of 99.8% in the settlement was obtained when the source temperature was 500°C, with a heating time of 12 hours, and the distance between the heaters was 20 cm. An improvement in maximum stress of 425% was obtained when the source temperature was 500 °C, the heating time was 12 h, and the distance between the heaters was 20 cm. The conclusions of the study are that the settlement decreases with increasing temperature and the ultimate stress increases with increasing temperature.