On the classification of marine clays: a comparative study
- Vol.53(1), Feb
- USA Springer 2023
- 196-207p.
The physical and engineering behavior of marine clays present in the coastal and offshore regions of the world have gained attention due to their high compressibility and low strength. The classification of marine clays is pivotal in predicting their engineering behavior, and plasticity charts based on the Atterberg limits are often used to interpret and identify marine clays easily. Therefore, plasticity characteristics of marine clays from sixteen regions spread worldwide were tabulated and plotted in the plasticity chart based on the Casagrande's method. It was observed that most marine clays fall under the fat clay (CH) category and are plotted very close to the A-line in the plasticity chart. This indicates the significant similarity between the marine clays despite their different geologic origins and mineralogy dependency. Further, the use of the conventional plasticity chart in classifying marine clays was compared to other new methods of classification, and it was established that the conventional plasticity chart is the best suited and the most powerful tool for the classification of marine clays.