Prediction of the compressibility behavior of highly plastic clays under high stresses: Fid-Bau Portal

Prediction of the compressibility behavior of highly plastic clays under high stresses

Gurtug, Yesim

Abstract A simple method is proposed to predict the compressibility behavior of highly plastic clays (bentonites/montmorillonites) under high pressures using data describing their behavior under low pressures. It was shown that the void ratio of the compressible layer at 100kPa is an effective normalizing factor to predict the void ratio at higher pressures. Experimental results from the published literature on highly plastic clays were used to verify the proposed procedure. The different normalized equations, that are, i) e/e 100 vs. log pressure p and ii) e/e 100 with $1 / \sqrt{p}$ , were studied. Both of the equations yielded very good results in predicting the compressibility behavior under high pressures. Extremely high correlation was found out to exist between the proposed equation and the equation obtained using the diffuse double layer theory. Given the need to obtain the compressibility behavior and the difficulties involved in the experimental work to obtain reliable results at high pressures, the proposed method was found out to be very effective.

Research Highlights ►Prediction of compressibility behavior at high pressures. ►Compressibility behavior of highly plastic clays under high stresses. ►Diffuse double layer theory and compressibility behavior of highly plastic clays. ►Normalized void ratio for prediction purposes at higher pressures.