Assessment of the clay mineralogy effect on Ajabshir soils’ physicochemical characteristics and swelling phenomenon

Clayey minerals are considered as the most important factor causing soils swelling, especially fine-grained soils. This phenomenon also causes the destruction of soil structure and texture and in the water vicinity makes damage to surrounding structures. Therefore, identifying and improving the condition of such soils can be very useful. For this purpose, standard laboratory methods have been proposed to evaluate the swelling potential of clayey soils. In this study attempted to use these laboratory methods to evaluate the clayey soils’ physicochemical characteristics and swelling potential form Ajabshir, East-azerbaijan province, NW of Iran. In this regard, the field survey, sampling and laboratory tests (such as physical, chemical and mechanical) conducted on 30 specimens were taken in Ajabshir. The soils samples are classified by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) classification to identify the clay minerals classes for Ajabshir’s soil. Also, the indirect swelling potential evaluation was applied for providing the swellability condition of the studied soils.