This study compares the performance of various foundation systems in expansive soils, such as mats, granular anchor piles, and concrete piles. Expansive soils experience volumetric changes due to moisture fluctuations, which can lead to structural damage. Abaqus software, in conjunction with the SCV approach, is used to analyze soil-foundation interactions. A custom subroutine enhances simulation accuracy by incorporating empirical data on unsaturated clay behavior, matric suction, and variations in effective stress. The method's accuracy is validated by comparing simulation results to field and laboratory experiments. The findings indicate that increasing the applied load on mats decreases overall heave but increases the differential heave. Additionally, higher soil permeability dereases the differential heave of mats. Granular anchor piles outperform concrete piles by more than 50% in highly expansive soils, suggesting a preference for these foundations. This study provides insights into the behavior of expansive soils, which will assist engineers in designing resilient foundation systems for structures.

Expansive soils are found to be susceptible for seasonal moisture fluctuations and will undergo cyclic swell-shrink movements causing stability concerns for all the civil engineering structures which are being constructed on these soils, and particularly the lightly loaded constructions like single storied dwellings, canal linings, pavements, etc. The swelling behaviour of these soils is generally characterized either by the mobilized swelling pressure under constant volume condition or by an increase in volume with the release of swell pressure. The researchers all over the world have made efforts in developing some remedial solutions to control or reduce the potential damages by these problems. The use of recently suggested technique of piled footings and its extension to pavements resting on expansive soils is explored by conducting field investigations within N.I.T. Warangal campus. The present work deals with studying the efficiency of tension piles (granular anchor piles and concrete piles) in reducing the swell-shrink movements of model footings and pavement panels resting on these soils. For this purpose, field studies were made by constructing 13 numbers of square footings with varied dimensions (1, 1.5 and 2 m side) and 5 numbers of square pavement panels of 3.0 m side with and without these tension piles. The swell-shrink movements of all treated footings and pavement panels were compared with those untreated ones for evaluating the efficiency in reducing the swell potential of these footings and pavement panels. The maximum heave of footings and pavement panels provided with granular anchor piles reduces by about 91%, and it reduces by about 75% when they were provided with concrete piles.