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Soils containing swelling clays, such as montmorillonite, can develop significant pressures due to their water content, or can absorb significant surrounding water, leading to potentially dramatic volume changes. This work presents a generalized Terzaghi’s stress principle that accounts for three phases: solid, adsorbed (bound) water, and free water. When rewritten in terms of measurable quantities, the generalized principle relates overburden pressure to volumetric change. In the limiting case of 100% clay it simplifies to the pressure-volumetric relationship developed by Phillip Low, and in the other extreme (no clay) Terzaghi’s stress principle is obtained. The relationship is derived using Hybrid Mixture Theory, a multi-scale mixture theoretical framework, which allows for developing a more generalized mathematical model for multi-physics problems. The equation relating overburden pressure to volume incorporates the clay and water content, bulk liquid pressure, and four empirical constants. The resulting constitutive equation is validated against existing experimental data over a wide range of pressures and clay content (see Figure).
| References | R. Whitehead, L. Schreyer, I. Akin A Multi-scale Model of Overburden Pressure and Water Content in Montmorillonite-Bearing Clayey Soils, Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, 42, 3843-3856, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-024-02761-0 |
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| Country | USA |
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