Gypseous Soil Engineering Properties In The Middle Euphrates Area

This book deals with the geotechnical evaluation of Gypsiferous soil in four governorates in the middle Euphrates of Iraq (Babylon, Kerbala, Al- Najaf and Al- Qadissiya) The results of the grain size analyses revealed that the soil in the study area are alluvial origin and it is non-homogeneous and it contains large ranges of the size of grains. The grain size distribution of the gypsiferous soils of study area shows the sands percentage to be higher than those of the silt, clay and gravel percentages; the gravel percentage ranges between (0%-46%), the sand percentage ranges between 8% - 95% ; the silt percentage range between 3% - 68%; the clay percentage range between 0%- 76 %. The wet density values range between 1.772 gm/cm3 - 2.538 gm/cm3, while the dry density values range between 1.549 gm/cm3 - 2.474 gm/cm3 the soil of the study area is low density because it contains a quantity of gypsum which has a low density. The engineering properties of the soil revealed that the direct shear values for soil cohesion(c), range between 0.0 KN/m2 - 150 KN/m2. The internal friction angle (Ø°)of the soil study area ranges from 18°-50°.