Expansive Soil

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD 1

 Expansive clay is a clay soil that is prone to large volume changes (swelling and shrinking)
that are directly related to changes in water content.

 Soils with a high content of expansive minerals can form deep cracks in drier seasons or
years; such soils are called vertisols.

 Soils with smectite clay minerals, including montmorillonite and bentonite, have the most
dramatic shrink- swell capacity.

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD 2

 Smectite clay : Clay minerals are hydrous a aluminium phyllosilicates, sometimes with
variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found
on or near some planetary surfaces.

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD 3

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD 4
 IDENTIFICATION OF EXPANSIVE SOILS
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The identification methods used to identify the swell potential of expansive soils can generally be
grouped into two categories.

 The first category mainly involves measurement of physical properties of soils, such as Atterberg
limits, free swell, and potential volume change.

 The second category involves measurement of mineralogical and chemical properties of soils, such as
clay content, cation exchange capacity, and specific surface area.

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD

 IDENTIFICATION OF EXPANSIVE SOILS
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 Practicing geotechnical engineers typically use only the measurement of physical properties to
identify expansive soils.

 However, the measurement of mineralogical and chemical properties is used routinely by

agricultural and geological practitioners and should not be disregarded by the engineering
community.

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD

 Methods Based on Physical Properties
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Methods Based on Plasticity

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD

 Methods Based on Physical Properties

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Atterberg limits and clay content can be combined into a parameter called activity, Ac. This term was defined by Skempton (1953) as

Skempton suggested three classes of clays according to activity. The suggested classes are “inactive” for activities
less than 0.75, “normal” for activities between 0.75 and 1.25, and “active” for activities greater than 1.25.

Typical values of activities for various clay minerals are shown in Table 2.2. Sodium montmorillonite has the most
expansion potential, which is reflected by the extraordinarily high value of activity in Table 2.2.

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD

 Free Swell Test
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 The free swell test consists of placing a known volume of drysoil passing the No.40 (425μm) sieve into a
graduated cylinder filled with water and measuring the swelled volume after it has completely settled.

 The free swell of the soil is determined as the ratio of the change in volume from the dry state to the wet
state over the initial volume, expressed as a percentage.

 A high-grade commercial bentonite (sodium montmorillonite) will have a free swell value from 1,200 to
2,000 percent.

 HoltzandGibbs (1956) stated that soils having free swell values as low as 100 percent may exhibit
considerable expansion in the field when wetted under light loading.

 Dawson(1953)reported that several Texas clays with free swell values in the range of 50 percent have caused
considerable damage due to expansion. This was due to extreme climatic conditions in combination with the
expansion characteristics of the soil.

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD

 Free Swell Test

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 The Bureau of Indian Standards (1997) 2720 Part 40 uses the free swell index (FSI)
method to indirectly estimates well potential of expansive soils.
 In this test, two oven-dried soil specimens are each poured into a graduated cylinder.
 One cylinder is filled with kerosene oil and the other with distilled water.
 Both of the samples are stirred and left undisturbed for a minimum of 24 hours after
which the final volumes of soils in the cylinders are noted.
 The FSI is calculated as,

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD

 Free Swell Test

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The expansion potential of the soil as classified according to the FSI is shown in Table 2.3.

Ashis Kumar Bera, PhD