CORRELATION ANALYSIS OF INDEX PROPERTIES AND BEARING CAPACITY OF MAKURDI SHALE FOR BUILDING FOUNDATIONS
Abstract
The bearing capacity of soils is necessary for the design and construction of building foundations. The determination of bearing capacity of soil could be tedious, expensive and time-consuming. There is need to establish models that would predict the bearing capacity of soils using simple and less time-consuming laboratory tests. This study examines the relationship between bearing capacity and index properties of Makurdi shale. Forty-five samples of the shale were collected; index properties and bearing capacity were determined and correlated. Using multiple linear regression analysis, it was established that bearing capacity of the shale could be predicted from different combinations of the shale index properties. These include maximum dry density (MDD), moisture content (MC), specific gravity (, liquid limit (LL), plastic limit (PL) shrinkage limit (SL), optimum moisture content (OMC) percentage of soil finer than sieve (, with adjusted values of 0.805 – 0.875 as expressed in Models 1-4. Results of the Models’ evaluation show root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.7923 % to 2.9478 %, and 0.6157 to 2.8457 respectively. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that models 1 to 4 could be used for prediction of bearing capacity of Makurdi shale using corresponding soil index properties such MDD, MC, , LL, PL, SL, OMC and .
KEYWORDS: Makurdi shale, Bearing capacity, Soil index properties, Correlation, Multiple linear regression analysis, Building foundations.
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