Swelling-Shrinkage Properties of Expansive Moreland Clay

One of the biggest challenges for researchers and engineers is to properly understand unsaturated expansive soil. Moreland clay which is composed mostly of Montmorillonite minerals causes the major structural damages in Northern Louisiana. The objective of this paper is to expand further knowledge and understanding of the soil volume change behavior of Moreland clay. According to the USCS soil classification, Moreland clay is a highly expansive fat clay (CH) with a significant moisture content absorption capacity (LL = 79 and I-p = 51). An in-depth soil testing is done to characterize Moreland clay including the identification of its swell-shrink properties, soil index property measurement, and soil heave predictions using five different methods. The average swelling percent (SP) is calculated as 7.2%. It indicates that Moreland clay has one of the highest SP values once compared with other expansive soil around the world.