F.Z. Aissiou^1,, A. Nechnech¹, H. Aissiou²

The ground heaving is a very complex phenomenon which utilizes a great number of intrinsic and surrounding parameters. It is the response of the ground to a gradient of potential of the water of this last. It appears initially by a water run-off within the meaning of Darcy, in the large pores of the ground, then by the hydration of the particles of clay. This phenomenon is related to two parameters of great importance: it water content initial of the ground which expresses the state of suction of the ground and which controls the rate of swelling that it is for the altered or intact grounds. it initial dry density or the index of the vacuums, which measures the quantity of material likely to inflate. Indeed, the curve which giving swelling according to time, reveals two quite distinct phases, one fast which starts with the flood of the sample, the other slow one which evolves/moves in time. According to Chen (1988), the first phase would be the result of a relaxation partial of the constraints in the partially saturated vacuums. This phase would correspond to a macroscopic swelling, compared to a water run-off within the meaning of Darcy, which is governed by the permeability of the medium and the gradient of suction, i.e. a water filling of the large pores separating the grains. The second phase would represent the process of progressive hydration of argillaceous minerals starting from water existing in the pores. Thus starting from this direction, our work, consists in plotting the curves of kinetics of swelling according to time for two natural clay soils of Algiers “Ouled Fayet and Cheraga” with the calculation of the pressures and rates of swelling of the latter in a first place, then by studying the behavior and the improvement of this swelling in this kind of the grounds by adding a hydraulic binder as being one stabilizing which is the lime of Saida.

lime, clay soil, swelling, kinetics, pressure, stabilization