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Relationships among plasticity, clay fraction and activity of clay–sand mixtures

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Abstract

It is known that the standards suggest classifying fine-grained soils by incorporating different amounts and types of clays based on their plasticity which is a function of the liquid and plastic limit, rather than activity. Engineering behavior of clay–sand mixtures with same liquid limit may be different due to clay type and content. In this study, authors’ own data and data from literature are compiled to obtain a database including index and consistency identifiers of clay–sand mixtures. In this regard, author’s own data are based on three different types of sands (Sand1, Sand2, silt-sized quartz) and two types of clays (kaolinite and bentonite). A vast amount of data from past studies including tests on different types of soils around the world were also compiled to establish relationships among soil activity, liquid limit, plastic limit, plasticity index and clay fraction. This study aims to develop a series of relations using liquid limit and plastic limit values. Effects of soils with low (LL ≤ 50), high (50 < LL ≤ 100) and very high (LL > 100) liquid limits are taken into account. It is revealed that the distinction between coarse and fine content based on their clay content (< 2 µm) and soil activity might be useful in characterization and prediction of engineering behavior of soils.

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Abbreviations

A:

Activity

Aest :

Activity of estimated

CF:

Clay fraction

MSE:

Mean squared error (mse)

NP:

Nonplastic

LL cup :

Casagrande liquid limit (%)

LL cone :

Fall cone liquid limit (%)

PL :

Plastic limit (%)

PI :

Plasticity index (%)

R 2 :

Coefficient of determination

R :

Coefficient of correlation

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Aralik University, Kilis 7, Kilis, Turkey

    Eyyüb Karakan

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  1. Eyyüb Karakan
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Correspondence to Eyyüb Karakan.

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Additional information

Responsible Editor: Zeynal Abiddin Erguler

Research Highlights

• Variation of LL, PL, PI and CF with A.

• A relationship between LL, PL, PI, CF and A was derived.

• Results of this study may be beneficial in engineering practice.

Supplementary Information

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Karakan, E. Relationships among plasticity, clay fraction and activity of clay–sand mixtures. Arab J Geosci 15, 334 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-09482-9

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