A Comparative Study of Hydromechanical Properties in Saturated and Partially Saturated Conditions of Two Soils from the Runway of Oran Airport

Abstract

This study concerns the ground soils of the second runway of the Es-Sénia airport in Oran (Algeria). This airport was built on a very complex hydro geotechnical site when underground cavities, following the dissolution of gypsum soil, were found during the before-construction geologic studies. Several, techniques are used in laboratory (Permeability, triaxial compression tests at various confining pressure, and hydric tests in saturated and unsaturated conditions) and for in situ it’s used the results of SPT and pressure-meter tests. A comparison of parameters of two soils identified in saturated and partially saturated conditions by in situ and laboratory tests was performed in order to respond to questions of the similarity of hydro mechanical properties of two soils as well as their statistical representativeness of the in-situ reality. It is found that, in respect to the studied parameters, laboratory results are statistically significant and reconstituted soils is statistically representative of natural soil reconstitution.