Discriminant-Analysis of Hydrocollapse in Las Vegas Soils

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1995

Publication Title

Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems

Volume

11

Issue

4

First page number:

307

Last page number:

316

Abstract

In their natural condition, hydrocollapsible soils exhibit considerable strength. As they become wet, they exhibit considerable collapse, even in the absence of an applied load. The severity of this collapse depends on a variety of factors. One would like to be able to predict the severity of collapse from easily measurable properties of the soil - if not with absolute precision, at least in an approximate, probabilistic way. Using a hydrocollapse measurements database compiled from geotechnical reports on various clays, silts and sands found in the Las Vegas area, we apply linear discriminant analysis to determine the dependence of collapse percentage on four properties: moisture content, load, dry density, and depth. Using this analysis, we give a formula which estimates into which of three predetermined collapse ranges a given sample is most likely to fall, either based on all four properties or based on moisture content and dry density alone. We then derive a novel probabilistic classification rule, which estimates the probability that a soil sample falls into a given collapse range. Although quite simple, this rule uses much more of the information provided by discriminant analysis than does simple deterministic classification.

Keywords

Discriminant analysis; Hydrocollapse; Soil mechanics; Soils

Disciplines

Civil and Environmental Engineering | Engineering | Environmental Engineering | Environmental Sciences | Geology

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

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