Examination of the Physico-chemical Composition of Dispersive Soils

Authors

  • Gábor Nagy
    Affiliation

    Budapest University of Technology and Economics

  • László Nagy
    Affiliation

    Budapest University of Technology and Economics

  • Katalin Kopecskó
    Affiliation

    Budapest University of Technology and Economics

https://doi.org/10.3311/PPci.8896

Abstract

When it comes to flood protection, the established method is to use an impermeable material in dikes, to prevent seepage. This material is usually some type of clayey soil which is considered as watertight and erosion-resistant. Despite that, in many occasions not only seepage, but the failure of the dam occurred due to surface erosion, because dispersive behavior is barely investigated, and their presence are not considered during the phase of design.
The term “dispersive clay” refer to a cohesive soil, which has an unfavorable property compared to other clays. Therefore the application of these kind of clays in flood protection structures, like dikes cannot be considered as a solution for the seepage problems. Dikes constructed from dispersive soils often fail to achieve the main idea of flood protection: keeping the downstream face relatively dry.
Earlier experiences stated that the dispersive behavior is related to the physico-chemical composition of the soil, therefore in this paper a few Hungarian soils, which are identified as dispersive are examined with geotechnical, agricultural and phase analytical methods.

Keywords:

Dispersive clay, pinhole test, sodic soil, phase analytics, geotechnical risk

Published Online

2016-02-09

How to Cite

Nagy, G., Nagy, L., Kopecskó, K. “Examination of the Physico-chemical Composition of Dispersive Soils”, Periodica Polytechnica Civil Engineering, 60(2), pp. 269–279, 2016. https://doi.org/10.3311/PPci.8896

Issue

Section

Research Article