SWELLING CORRELATIONS

Definition
 Soil swelling is a term generally applied to the ability
of a soil to undergo large changes in volume due to
increased moisture content.
Correlations in Terms of
1. Activity
2. Swelling Pressure
3. Potential Volume Change (PVC)
4. Coefficient of Linear Extensibility (COLE)
5. Shrink-Swell Index – Iss
6. Swell Index Cs
7. Cation Exchange Capacity - CEC
Swell Percent in terms of Activity
 Skempton (1953)

Ac= Activity, PI = Plasticity Index, & C = %age finer than 0.002

mm
 Skempton’s definition of activity is modified to:
Swell Percent in terms of Activity
Activity of Clays (Skempton 1953)

Typical Values of activities for various clay minerals

Swell Percent in terms of Activity
Classification of degree of expansion by USBR.

Seed et al. (1962)

S under a surcharge of 6.9 kPa (1 psi)
 Swell Percent in terms of Activity

Fig. 2: Simplified Relationship

Fig. 1: Classification Chart for between plasticity index and clay
swelling potential (Seed et al., 1962). content (Seed et al., 1962)
 Van der Merwe (1964) chart

Fig. 3: Van der Merwe (1964), Based on Fig. 4. Activity chart of Van Der Merwe (1964) for
PI, percentage of clay <2μm and estimation of the degree of expansiveness of
activity. clay soil.
Van der Merwe (1964) chart
 Williams (1957) and Van der Merwe (1964), the
amount by which a soil could potentially swell is given
by:

Where;
wi is the initial water content
P is the vertical pressure under which swell takes place
WLW is the weighted liquid limit, defined by:
Swell Potential and Shrinkage Index

 Ranganatham and Satyanarayan (1965) propose an

equation of the form:

m1= constant = 41.13, for natural soils

SI = shrinkage index (LL-SL)
Based on Plasticity Chart

Fig. 5: Swelling potential based on plasticity chart Dakshanamurthy and Raman

(1973).
 Based on Suction

McKeen (1992) gave indirect measurement of swelling

potential
 Linear Shrinkage, Shrinkage Limit
and Percent Swell

Table 6: Swell Potential Criteria per Altmeyer 1955

Colloid Content and Degree of
Expansion
 Table 7: Identification criteria for expansive clays (After Holtz
and Gibbs, 1956).
Colloid Content and Degree of
Expansion

 Identification Criteria for Expansive Clays from US

Bereau of Reclamation (1960)
Based on Atterberg Limits
 Swell Potential Criteria per Terzaghi and Peck
1967
Based on Atterberg Limits
Swell Potential per Raman 1967.
Based on Atterberg Limits
 Potential Volume Change per Sowers and Sowers
1970
Based on Atterberg Limits
 Peck et al (1974)
Relationship between Swelling Potential of soils and
Plasticity Index.
Based on Atterberg Limits
 Swell Potential Classification per Snethen et al.
1977
Based on Atterberg Limits
 USAEWES classification of swell potential (from
O’Neill and Poorymoayed, 1980 after Beil and
Culshaw, 2001).

USAEWES = United States Army Engineers

Waterways Experimental Station
Based on Atterberg Limits
 Relations between Atterberg limits & swelling
potential (Pitts, 1984: Kalantari, 1991).
Based on Atterberg Limits
 Estimating probale swelling pressure from Chen
(1988).

A and B are constants equal to 0.0838 and 0.2558 respectively.

Based on Atterberg Limits
 Relation between swelling potential with plasticity
index (Bowels, 1988)
Based on Atterberg Limits
 Swell Potential per Kay 1990.
Swell Potential and Clay Mineral
Type Allocation
 Modified Nelson and Miller (1992) swell potential
and clay mineral type allocation
Based on Clay Fraction
 Plasticity Index and Clay Fraction BRE (1993)
Comparison of Different Authors Work to
a Single Parameter
 Empirical approaches between physiochemical
characteristics and swelling
Comparison of Different Authors Work to
a Single Parameter
 Empirical Approaches between physicochemical
characteristics and swelling.
Classifications for degree of expansion
(swelling potential)
Correlations between Swelling Potential &
Plasticity Index, Chen (1983).
Empirical Relationships
 Seed et al., 1962

 Ranganathan and Satyanrayan, 1965

 Nayak and Christensen, 1971

Empirical Relationships
 Vijayvergiva and Ghazzaly 1973

 Schneider and Poor 1974

 Weston, D.J. 1980

Empirical Relationships
 Chen, F.H. 1988

 Basma, A.A. 1993

 Al-Shayea, N.A. 2001

Empirical Relationships
 Rao, A.S., Rao, S.M., and Gangadhara, S. 2004

 Yilmaz, I. 2006

 Zapata et al. 2006

Empirical Relationships
 Nayak and Christensen (1974) studied the swelling
behavior of compacted expansive soils as;
Swelling Potential & Initial Dry Density

 The relationship between volume change and initial dry density

of expansive soil samples compacted at constant moisture
content, Chen (1975).
Swelling Potential & Initial Water
Content
 Volume change versus moisture content for samples
compacted at constant dry density, Chen (1975).
Swell Percent versus Dry Density
 Swell percent versus dry density of samples
compacted at constant moisture content values,
Kassif et al (1965).
Swell Percent with Void Ratio
 Variation of swell percent with void ratio of samples
having equal moisture content values, Brackley
(1973).
Swell Percent and Initial State Factor,
(Fi)
 The linear relationship between swell percent and initial state
factor, Fi for the data analyzed of present tests results.
 Swell Percent v/s Adsorption
 Swelling behaviour (as percent of total swell) of soil-bentonite
mixtures.
Swell Percent & Stress Path
 Stress Path dependencies from Seed et al. 1962.
Swell Percent & Stress Path
 Stress Path dependencies Juto et al. 1984.
Effects of Compactive Effort on
Swelling
 Rao et al. 2004
Impact of Initial Conditions on Swell
Potential
 (Ito 2009)
Soil Swelling/Shrinkage Characteristic
Curve.
Differences in Triaxial & Odometer
Axial Swell
 Al-Mhaidib 1998.
Swelling Potential Classification in Correlation with
Anticipated Damages to Building Structures
Physiographic Zones, Parent Material,
Classification & Swelling Potential

 (Scott, 1963)
Correlations in Terms of Swelling
Pressure
 Komornik and David (1969)
(γd = g/cm3)

 Vijayvergiya and Ghazzaly (1973)

(γd = kN/m3)
Correlations in Terms of Swelling
Pressure
 Daniel Teklu, (2003)
(γd = kg/m3)

 Dagmawe Negussie, (2007)

 Ashenafi Tamrat, (2013)

 Correlations in Terms of Swelling
Pressure
 The effect of initial water content on swelling pressure as remolded by three methods
by Lingwei Kong, 2000

 The swelling pressure versus water content relation

Correlation in terms of Expansion
Index

 Δh = percent swell and F = fraction passing No. 4 sieve

 UBC Expansive Soil tendency (UBC Table 18-1-B)
Correlations in Terms of Potential Volume
Change (PVC)
 PVC meter is a standardized apparatus for
measuring swelling pressure.

 Table : Values of PVC (Lambe, 1961).

 Classification for shrink-swell soils
 A ‘Modified Plasticity Index’ (IP’) is proposed in the Building Research
Establishment Digest 240 (BRE, 1993) for use where the particle size
data is known, Table
Correlations in Terms of Coefficient of
Linear Extensibility (COLE)

Where;
ΔL /ΔLD = linear strain relative to dry dimensions
γdB = dry density of oven dry sample,
γdM = dry density of sample at 5 psi suction
 National Soil Survey uses Linear Extensibility (LE) as an

estimator of clay mineralogy.

Correlations of Shrink Swell Index

 (Peter. W. Reynolds 2013)  Nagaraj and Murty (1985)

 Nakase et al. (1988)

Newly Developed Equations and their
Performance Indices
Correlation in Terms of Cation Exchange
Capacity - CEC

Yoelmaz (1999).
Correlation in Terms of Cation
Exchange Capacity - CEC
 Swelling potential classification of the clayey soils
according to their CEC, Yoelmaz (1999).

 Swelling Potential Chart for clayey soils due CEC

and LL values. Yoelmaz (1999).
Correlation in Terms of Cation Exchange
Capacity - CEC
 CEC values for some clay minerals (Grim, 1968)
Yoelmaz 1999, Distribution of randomly selected samples, having
various CEC value, on the swelling potential chart of van der Merwe
(1964).
REFRENCES
 A. Sridharan, PhD, DSc and K. Prakash, PhD, Classification procedures for expansive soils.
 Abdirshkur Kemal, corrrlation between index properties and swelling pressure of expansive soils found around koye area,
November, 2015.
 Amer Ali Al-Rawas, Mattheus F.A. Goosen, Expansive Soils: Recent Advances in Characterization and Treatment.
 Behzad Kalantari, Engineering Significant of Swelling Soils, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran, Research Journal of
Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 4(17): 2874-2878, 2012, ISSN: 2040-7467.
 Bujang B.K. Huat, David G. Toll, Arun, Handbook of Tropical Residual Soils Engineering
 Daniel Curtis Rosenbalm, Volume Change Behavior of Expansive Soils due to Wetting and Drying Cycles, Arizona State
University, August 2013.
 Lee D Jones, Ian Jefferson, Institution of Civil Engineers Manuals series, Chapter C5 – Expansive Soils.
 Lingwei Kong, Study on shear strength and swellingshrinkage characteristic of compacted expansive soil, May 2000.
 M. Aniculaesi, Indirect estimation of the swelling pressure of active clay based on a new activity coefficient (CA), Gheorghe
Asachi, Technical University of Iaşi, România, 2015.
 Michael Carter, Stephen P. Bentley, Soil Properties and Their Correlations, second edition, published 2016 by John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd.
 M. F. Attom, Majed M. Abu-Zreig, and Mohammed Taleb Obaidat, Effect of remolding techniques on soil swelling and shear
strength properties.
 Magdi Zumrawi, Swelling potential of compacted expansive soils, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Khartoum
Khartoum Sudan, International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT), ISSN: 2278-0181, Vol. 2 Issue 3, March
– 2013.
REFRENCES

 N. V. Nayak and R. W. Christensen, Swelling characteristics of compacted, Expansive soils, Department of Engineering
Mechanics, Engineering Building, The University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisc. 53706, November 1970.
 Nihat S. Isik, Estimation of swell index of fine grained soils using regression equations and artificial neural networks,
Department of Construction Education, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey, August, 2009.
 P. C. Kariuki, F. van der Meer, A unified swelling potential index for expansive soils, July 2003.
 Pamela Jo Thomas, Quantifying Properties and Variability of Expansive Soils in Selected Map Units, Dissertation submitted to
the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, April 15, 1998.
 Peter. W. Reynolds, Engineering Correlations for the Characterisation of Reactive Soil Behaviour for Use in Road Design,
October 2013.
 R. Hashim and A.S. Muntohar, Swelling rate of expansion clay soils.
 S. Jayasekera, A. Mohajerani, Some relationships between shrink-swell index, liquid limit, plasticity index, activity and free
swell index, Australian Geomechanics Journal, June 2003.
 S.M. Rao, Classification of expansive soil.
 U. N. Umoren, A. E. Edet and A. S. Ekwere, Geotechnical Assessment of a Dam Site: A Case Study of Nkari Dam, South Eastern
Nigeria, Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 6, no.2, 2016, 73-88, ISSN: 1792-9040.
 Yilmaz, Relationships between Liquid Limit, Cation Exchange Capacity, and Swelling Potentials of Clayey Soils, Received
November 22, 2001.
 Z. Belabbaci, S. M. A. Mamoune & A. Bekkouche, Laboratory Study of the Influence of Mineral Salts on Swelling (KCl, MgCl2),
University Center of Ain Temouchent, Algeria. Earth Science Research; Vol. 2, No. 2; 2013, ISSN 1927-0542.