Swelling property and its anisotropy of reconstituted and undisturbed samples

This paper reported swelling property of clay as related to unsaturated soil mechanics. In the present study, an apparatus was newly developed to accurately measure one-dimensional swelling pressure of clay subjected to water infiltration. A series of tests was carried out on reconstituted bentonite, undisturbed mudstones, granite seam clay and rhyolite stiff clay. The test results showed that maximum swelling pressure of undisturbed samples correlated closely with specimen's initial state index, and these tendencies were very similar to those of reconstituted samples. Swelling anisotropy was obviously recognized on the basis of test results on undisturbed samples.