Journal article

Review of calculation procedures of thornthwaite moisture index and its impact on footing design

AMAN Karunarathne, EF Gad, MM Disfani, S Sivanerupan, JL Wilson

Australian Geomechanics Journal | AUSTRALIAN GEOMECHANICS SOC | Published : 2016

Abstract

Thornthwaite Moisture Index (TMI) was introduced in 1948 as an index to classify the climate condition of different areas. Since then it has been widely used in many fields such as agricultural and environmental geotechnics. The Australian residential footing design procedure is associated with TMI in order to relate the effect of climate condition on the variation of soil moisture profile. This paper illustrates the different methods commonly used to calculate TMI and compares their different outcomes. The different calculation methods result in different TMI values for the same climate condition which consequently affects the subsequent correlations. The sensitivity of the primary climate ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council


Funding Acknowledgements

This research is funded by ARC linkage Project - LP100200306. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial and technical support provided by the collaborating organizations, namely; Victorian Building Authority (VBA), Victorian Office of Housing (OoH), Foundation and Footings Society of Victoria (FFSV), Association of Consulting Structural Engineers Victoria (ACSEV) and Housing Engineering Design and Research Association (HEDRA).