Synthetic clay for the study of swelling behaviour of clayey soils: Na-laponite

The swelling behaviour of many natural clay soils is generally limited to a small range of water contents, over which they are plastic. Moreover, it i s difficult to control the initial conditions, mainly water content and den sity, and study the experimental swelling behaviour . Experimental studies were undertaken on synthetic clay, Na-laponite, using it as a model soil to understand the swelling behaviour of clay soils. Na-laponite has a high af finity for water and remains plastic for a large range of water contents. E xperimental results suggest that the swelling pressure is independent of th e initial water content for the relative humidity conditions between 32 and 98 %. ((C) Academie des sciences/ Elsevier, Paris.).