Settlement monitoring of shallow foundations in collapsible tropical soil Paulo Vinícius do Nascimento Martins, José Luiz Ernandes Dias Filho, Luis Gomes Carvalho, Mauro Alexandre Paula Sousa, Vinícius de Oliveira Kühn Soils and Rocks, 2026 The presence of collapsible soils poses a significant risk for foundation pathologies and is prevalent in various parts of the world, including tropical regions. This paper evaluates the behavior of a specific tropical collapsible soil through laboratory tests and field monitoring of foundations over the course of one year. Laboratory results indicate that the soil has a high collapse potential, particularly at stress levels exceeding 200 kPa, where it is considered critically problematic. Field monitoring revealed that external columns experienced settlement increases of up to 2.7 mm following rainfall events. In contrast, internal columns or those protected by concrete surfaces exhibited less seasonal variation in settlement, with changes of around 1 mm. These observations highlight that long-term exposure to moisture can result in undesirable settlement and underscore the need for moisture considerations in foundation design for collapsible soils. Structures that are initially loaded and subsequently exposed to moisture are likely to experience accelerated future settlement, potentially leading to structural pathologies. Therefore, consideration of moisture effects is critical in foundation design to mitigate long-term settlement issues.
Review of accelerated aging methods for geotextiles José Luiz Ernandes Dias Filho, Jefferson Lins da Silva E3s Web of Conferences, 2024 Accelerated aging methods are becoming increasingly common to evaluate geotextile properties in long-term behavior. Due to this, various manufacturers of these materials are asked to guarantee the useful life of the product, especially for components that cannot be easily inspected or may fail in service. Although the durability of geotextiles in non-demanding applications has traditionally been predicted from previous in-service experience, design for harsh environments or the long term requires a much better understanding of degradation mechanisms and the use of accelerated aging conditions to allow reliable useful life predictions to be made. Therefore, this paper aims to review accelerated aging methods according to the geotextile application environment that is commonly experienced in service and some techniques that have been developed for lifetime prediction in geotextiles according to different applications in engineering projects. The results of the review of the different papers analyzed show a clear division between conventional and non-conventional aging procedures. Moreover, characterization is defined according to the type of application of the geotextile. The review in this study, for geosynthetic design, provides general knowledge about accelerated aging methods using the main articles from the literature to evaluate the durability of geotextiles.
Natural weathering effects of nonwoven geotextile exposed to different climate conditions J. L. E. Dias Filho, J. L. Silva, C. A. Valentin, M. P. Fleury, M. A. Aparicio-Ardila, D. M. Vidal, C. M. L. Costa Geosynthetics International, 2024 Humidity, air temperature, rainfall and solar radiation all contribute to the weathering of geosynthetics. Over time, their useful life can be affected and changes in properties can be observed, which affects the performance of these materials. As geosynthetics durability analyses must encompass each work condition, assessing the climate effects is essential for design purposes. This study exposed a nonwoven needle-punched poly(ethylene) terephthalate geotextile to natural weathering in three Brazilian cities (different exogenous environments) for 18 months. Mechanical tests were conducted to evaluate the geotextile changes due to weathering. This was demonstrated by the results: exposure to weather leads to the deterioration of the geotextile mechanical properties and increased stiffness. After four months, the tensile strength fell by half, while the deformation needed more than 12 months to have this same reduction; ultraviolet radiation intensity was the most effective weathering condition in the field; humidity and rainfall can affect the stiffness of geotextiles; the impact of accumulated climate factors gradually showed a convergence in the response of geotextile to weathering. Thus, this work highlights the need to evaluate the climate conditions in each location to understand the material's behavior on the exposure time.
Durability of Ornamental Gneiss Stones from Pádua, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil José Luiz Ernandes Dias Filho, Gustavo de Castro Xavier, Paulo Cesar de Almeida Maia Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 2020 Ornamental stones weaken with exposure to weathering. Consequently, anomalies such as disintegration and cracks appear, making degradation studies necessary. Durability studies are necessary to determine the useful life of the material. In this study, gneiss specimens were divided into three lots: the first was a standard specimen, not aged, used as a control; the second was subjected to accelerated degradation in the laboratory; and the third was degraded naturally under local weathering conditions. After the two degradation processes, the weakening of the stone from wear and flexing was evaluated in relation to the control specimen over time, yielding correlation coefficients greater than 0.90. The correlation curve fit indicated that it is possible to evaluate the durability of the materials by determining the susceptibility of the material to alterations. A loss of flexural strength of up to 34% was observed after 5 years of local weathering, and was also simulated in 70 days of accelerated laboratory tests. This decline also was correlated by means of porosimetry of the stone after being subjected to the degradation processes, which exhibited a reduction in rigidity over a short period in the built environment.
Evaluation procedure of rock degradation by wet and dry cycles Rock Mechanics for Natural Resources and Infrastructure Development Proceedings of the 14th International Congress on Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering ISRM 2019, 2020
Procedure to determination of durability parameter in geosynthetics Icsmge 2017 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 2017
CBR Test in Geosynthetics with Confined Support Using Sands Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 2016
Durability of ornamental gneisses from pádua-rj as covering stone Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 2016
Influence of drying temperature on punching resistance in geotextile fabrics through wet and dry degradation test 10th International Conference on Geosynthetics Icg 2014, 2014
Critical analysis of laboratory testing procedures for setting properties of rock materials ISRM Conference on Rock Mechanics for Natural Resources and Infrastructure Sbmr 2014, 2014
Evaluation of tensile properties in geotextile fabrics by varying the width of the sample 10th International Conference on Geosynthetics Icg 2014, 2014
Performance evaluation of bending strength to predict durability of ornamental gneiss from Santo Antôino de Pádua, RJ, BR Geotechnical Engineering for the Preservation of Monuments and Historic Sites Proc of the 2nd Int Symp on Geotechnical Engineering for the Preservation of Monuments and Historic Sites, 2013
Performance evaluation of bending strength to predict durability of ornamental gneiss from Santo Antônio de Pádua, RJ, BR Geotechnical Engineering for the Preservation of Monuments and Historic Sites, 2013
Influence of drying temperature on punching resistance in geotextile fabrics through wet and dry degradation test Proceedings of the Twin Covilha International Conferences on Civil Engineering Towards A Better Environment Ce 2013 and the Concrete Future Cf 2013, 2013
