THE FABRIC OF ANISOTROPICALLY CONSOLIDATED SENSITIVE MARINE CLAY

The relationship between soil fabric and the anisotropic consolidation characteristics of a sensitive, highly flocculated marine clay has been studied using x-ray diffraction techniques. Measurements of the clay particle parallelism (fabric) were performed on “undisturbed” and remoulded samples of Leda clay from Ottawa, Canada, in an attempt to determine the influence of sample disturbance on soil fabric and laboratory consolidation test results.The amplitudes of the 10 A clay peaks of the “undisturbed” natural clays, measured in the major principal plane, increased from about 11 counts/second at low consolidation pressures to about 40 counts/second at 64 tons/sq. ft. This is interpreted as resulting from reorientation of many of the clay platelets into the plane perpendicular to the direction of the consolidation pressure. An abrupt reorientation occurred when the pre-consolidation pressure was exceeded.Remoulding the clay apparently causes a marked breakdown of the interparticle bonds as evidenced by st...