Expansive clays from Northern Venezuela: Characterization using Atterberg limits, consistency indices and expansion tests
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21703/0718-2813.2023.34.2451Keywords:
liquid limit, plasticity index, swelling, expansive clayAbstract
The northern coastal strip of Venezuela with a semiarid climate presents conditions for the development of
extensive areas with the presence of expansive clays, and, this is the main pathology of its communication routes due to deformation in the surrounding civil works. This contribution characterizes the presence of expansive clays in northern Venezuela in 81 samples distributed in several states of the country. The study included the determination of geomechanical properties through field work and laboratory tests by Atterberg limits, consistency indices and expansion tests as well as the relationship between the indexes and information from edometer tests. The soil grain size is mainly fine (silts and clays), in the Anzoátegui state the average content of fine grains is 86%, while in Falcón and Miranda they are a little lower, 82% and 67%, respectively. In general, the plasticity index (PI) of these expansive clays is high,
with an overall average of 23, although the region of Falcón state presented a moderate average (18). The
correlations between the expansion pressure and the PI showed a high correlation. These results corroborate that the criterion used to evaluate the Expansion Potential of a clay soil based on the PI proposed by Chen (1988), is a fairly adequate criterion to be used in the study and identification of the expansive behavior of these types of soils.
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