Stiffened slabs-on-grade are one of the most efficient and inexpensive foundation solutions for light structures on shrink-swell soils. After removing the top soil, the stiffening reinforced concrete beams, say 1m deep and 0.3 m wide, are formed in the natural ...

Sulphatic claystones exhibit a heavily swelling behavior and are among the most problematic rocks for tunnelling. Their swelling is usually attributed to the transformation of anhydrite to gypsum. The paper questions this simplistic hypothesis through a qualitative ...