Laboratory study to measure the swelling potential of fine-grained clay soils: A case study for Malekan city

Swelling potential is one of the most important effect of fine-grained clay soils which causes damage to the soil texture and structures built with/or on it. The ability to absorb water and swelling in clay soils is directly related to the clay types and properties where this increases with increasing clay complexity. Presented article attempted to provide the empirical relation between physicochemical properties of the clayey soils and swelling potential of Malekan city’s soils. For this purpose, a laboratory tests series including physical properties, XRD, chemical ratio, atterberg limits and fine-grained particles and hydrometery analysis was conducted on 25 clayey soils samples. The tests results are classified by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) systems and swelling activity charts to provide the clay minerals activities in Malekan. According to the results, the swelling potential of clays is medium to high and very high which must be considered as high risk for soil inflation.