Abstract
It is necessary to measure the specific surface (S. S.) of different soils by some suitable method for investigating the physical and engineering properties of fine-grained soils.
This is because the specific surface has a significant effect on the water film or surface activity of soil particles, and such a constant that covers a wide range of numerical value is very useful for the classification of fine-grained soils.
In this research, the magnitudes of specific surface of various soils are measured by the B. E. T. method, and some relations between S. S. and WL(liquid limit which is one of the very important engineering properties of soils) are obtained. The WL test is carried out on the samples of three groups as follows:
Group (1) Mixed samples of Bentonite and Kaolinite
Group (2) 32 samples which are mixed 6 non-swelling soils
Group (3) 24 samples which are mixed Bentnite and 5 non-swelling soils.
These experiments have proved the following matters:
(1) The S. S. of soils is very useful for the classification of fine-grained soils.
(2) The following linear formulas hold between S. S. and WL:
For samples of group (1) and (3)
[WL] =6.4 [S. S.]-26 (S.S.>12.0m2/gr)
[WL]=3.7[Mixed Bentonite (%)]+12.4,
for samples of group (2)
[WL] = 1.2 [S. S.] + 13.9.
(3) An approximate relation between the thickness of water film on the soil particles and S. S. is given.
(4) The quantities of swelling clay contained in the sample soils can be estimated by the measurements of S. S. and WL.
