The impact of mineral composition on the compressibility of saturated soils

This article analyses the impact of soils' mineral composition on their compressibility. Physical and chemical properties of minerals which influence the quantity of intergrain water in soils and, consequently, the compressibility of soils are established by considering the previous theoretical findings. Test results obtained on artificially prepared samples are used to determine the analytical relationship between the water content and stress state, depending on the mineralogical properties of the soils. A practical applicability of the established interdependence is verified on five randomly selected samples of natural soils. The selected approach to the analysis of the influence of soils composition on the water content at different stress states allows for the first time to establish generally valid criteria for determining such relationship. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.