SETTLEMENT POTENTIALITY ANALYSIS OF CLAY SOILS, NORTH JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA

Usually, constructors built on clay-rich soils are subjected to settlement due to compressive deformation as a result of decreasing in void space that due to rearrangement of clayey-sized grain. Settlement of the clay-rich soil leads to damage in constructions owing to decreasing in ground stability. The settlement potentiality of clay soils was increasing with increasing of both clayey-sized material content and plasticity index. The studied clay soil samples are classified as high plasticity clays (CH) and inorganic silts of high compressibility (MH). The mV-values of the studied soil samples are ranging from 0.00305cm2/gm and 0.02cm2/gm and from 0.00263cm2/gm to 0.08389 cm2/gm for clay-soil samples and silty soil samples respectively. The expansion index of the studied samples ranges from 0.000041 to 0.00509 and from 0.000038 to 0.001187 for clay soil samples and silty soil samples. The compression index of the studied samples ranges from 0.10426 to 0.3547 and from 0.13386 to 0.40062 for clay-rich soil samples and silty soil samples respectively.