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Soil Investigation of a Collapsed Building Site in Jos, Nigeria

International Journal of Recent Engineering Science (IJRES)

Authors : Timothy Danjuma, Mbimda Ali Mbishida, Ephraim Maude Haruna, Benjamin Yusuf Mailafiya

Abstract: 
This investigation was conducted on soil samples collected from a site of the collapsed building in Jos, Nigeria, with the aim to serve as a reference document to Engineers, Designers, and Builders in the building profession. Two test pits of 0.4m x 1.2m located within the premises of the collapsed building were excavated at a depth of 0.6m, 1.0m, and 1.2m, at which samples were collected at each depth. The Soil Investigation was drawn in such that only vital tests that will provide the parameters required for the desire and construction of the foundation were carried out. These tests conducted include: Sub-soil investigation, sieve analysis using the wet sieving procedure, Atterberg limit test in order to classify the soil according to the Unified Soil Classification System, and shear strength using triaxial compression test, which was further used to determine the soil bearing capacity. The results obtained shows that the soil has slight to medium expansion and compressibility with poor drainage. The shear strength parameters obtained from trial pits MAE 2 at 1.0m yielded the least angle of internal friction of 60 with high cohesion values of 150N/m2. The highest cohesion values obtained were from test pit 1, which suggests that the soil contains an appreciable amount of clay and silt fractions. The allowable/safe bearing value was found to be 234.5 KN/m2, which suggests that the soil is cohesive, consisting of clayed materials.

Keywords: 
Soil, Bearing capacity, Shear strength, Atterberg limit

Reference: 
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