GEOTECHNICAL FEATURES AND PROBABILISTIC CORRELATIONS IN THI QAR GOVERNORATE, IRAQ

Abstract

Thi Qar is the civilized capital of Iraq. In recent times, the governorate has witnessed a noticeable increase in tourists and arrivals due to the ancient monument, thus increasing the construction of hotels, commercial and investment markets, and construction flourished in them. The foundations of structures are built on the soil, so the soil is one of the most critical materials used in construction, and the geotechnical engineer has to study its properties. In light of the high cost of soil investigations and compressive properties tests, in particular, this paper has been prepared to explore the geotechnical properties of Thi Qar. The data of 85 reports for several projects distributed over the governorates to examine soil investigations were collected, obtained, and statistically analyzed using excel for this purpose. The study area was divided into four regions to represent the data more accurately. First, the geotechnical properties of all regions were studied, including soil properties, standard penetration test results (SPT-N), Atterberg boundaries and sieve analysis results, standardization results, and other physical aspects. In addition, the chemical analysis of the soil of Thi Qar was studied. Then the average geotechnical design characteristics with depth were calculated, and many correlations were obtained from the field and laboratory characteristics of the soil. Then the probabilistic and cumulative analysis was performed, and graphs representing the measured data were drawn using excel and matlab.