GEOTECHNICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND GEOREFERENCING OF SOME SOFT SOIL DEPOSITS OF THE METROPOLITAN REGION OF ARACAJU

Preliminary and complementary geotechnical investigations allow to obtain important information about the subsoil layers. However, in daily practice, this step is usually neglected. This problem becomes harder when there are layers of soft soils in the subsoil, due to the particularities of this kind of soil. Metropolitan Region of Aracaju (MRA) have few recorded data about their soft soil deposits, which difficult geotechnical design. Hence, this study aims to perform the geotechnical characterization of some soft soil deposits existent in the MRA and georeferencing these deposits, using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The results obtained show that the studied deposits have a medium plastic to very plastic behavior (PI ranging from 8.00 to 33.00). Values of natural moisture content were considerably lower than those obtained in other Brazilian states (between 29% and 84%), possibly due to the influence of the sand lenses. As for the activity, the MRA clays are predominantly inactive. Furthermore, the analysis of the quality of samples made it clear that is difficulty to collect undisturbed soil samples in these deposits. In the future, complementary research needs to be developed to increase the knowledge about these soft soil layers.