Geological and Engineering Characteristics of Expansive Soils in Western Desert, Egypt- Juniper Publishers
Civil Engineering Research Journal- Juniper Publishers Introduction Expansive soil is defined as partially saturated plastic soil that exhibits high volume change when its environmental conditions are altered from dry to wet. The degree of expansion depends on whether the soil mass contains active day minerals or not. The most common active clay minerals are smectite, sometimes chlorite and vermiculite, and a mixed-layer of smectite and other clay minerals Grim [1] and Sabtan [2]. These soils, which lie above the water table, undergo shrinkage on drying and swelling on wetting. Numerous reports of expansive soil problems and related damages have been documented in different countries [3-5]. A limited amount of these studies was concentrated on developing equations that could be used to predict the swelling potential of expansive clays from their index properties Chen [3]; Abduljauwad et al. [6]; AL-Homoud et al. [4]; Li et al. [7]; Al-Rawas [8]. These studies provide helpful infor...
