A case study of cracked building with design guidelines on expansive soils

This paper is presented in two parts, Part-1 deals with study of two severely cracked buildings on relatively thin zone of clay overlying hard rock The observations, causes of distress, remedial measures are presented. Part-2 of the paper deals with method of first edentification of expansive soils. The appropriate method of measuring laboratory maximum swelling pressure, method of obtaining design swelling pressure are then suggested. The paper also deals with elucidation of various foundation techniques suitable for different ranges of swelling presures for construction of light structures on expansive soils.