Properties of a low-swelling smectitic marine clay of interest in soil engineering
Smectite is generally a high-swelling clay. However, the smectite found in marine quick clays in the Ariake Bay area of Japan is a low-swelling clay like illite and kaolinite. The low swelling properties of an Ariake marine clay are investigated here in terms of consolidation, swelling, and shrinkage characteristics. The void ratios in compression curves of soils containing sodium are lower at 0.01 N than at 1.0 N NaCl concentration, and the slopes of swelling curves are independent of salt concentration in the pore water and cation valency. These tendencies are contrary to those observed for montmorillonite and a paddy soil containing high-swelling smectite. Measurements of swelling pressure suggest that the smectite in the Ariake marine clay exhibits little intracrystalline swelling even after saturation with Na. The volume shrinkage of the Ariake marine clay by air-drying is smaller than that of the paddy soil. Key words: compressibility, marine clays, smectite, swelling.