**Clay in Civil Engineering**

**Chapter 5**

**Provisional chapter**

**The Importance of Clay in Geotechnical Engineering**

Clay is a very important material in geotechnical engineering, because it is often observed in geotechnical engineering practice. Generally, this soil type has numerous problems due to its low strength, high compressibility and high level of volumetric changes. Clay needs to be improved before it can be used in road construction, dams, slurry walls, airports and waste landfills. Improved gradation, a reduction in plasticity and swelling potential, as well as an increase in strength and workability, generally improve the stability of clay. Clay is a fine-grained soil, but not all fine-grained soils are clay. Clay minerals are very electrochemically active; thus, they affect soil microstructures. Due to these characteristics, many important soil problems related to clay have been observed in the past, the importance of which is understood. In this chapter, the properties of clay, as well as the use of clay in geotechnical engineering and geotechnical studies on clay, are

**Keywords:** clay, soils, geotechnical properties, soil problems, microstructure

Geotechnical engineering is a broad discipline consisting of soil mechanics and foundation engineering. Geotechnical engineering is also called geotechnique engineering or geomechanics. Geotechnical engineering addresses the application of engineering mechanics to soil and rock problems. The properties, behavior and performance of soils are addressed by engineering mechanics. Subsequently, the obtained data are processed and interpreted [1]. Geotechnical engineers consider landslides and earthquakes when planning and designing structures for buildings, roads, embankments and landfills. Geotechnical engineers also examine billions of years of geological history through soils. Therefore, examinations of the heterogeneous nature of soils require the resolution of complex problems. All types of

**The Importance of Clay in Geotechnical Engineering**

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.75817

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75817

Nazile Ural

Nazile Ural

**Abstract**

examined.

**1. Introduction**

#### **The Importance of Clay in Geotechnical Engineering The Importance of Clay in Geotechnical Engineering**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.75817

#### Nazile Ural Nazile Ural

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75817

**Abstract**

Clay is a very important material in geotechnical engineering, because it is often observed in geotechnical engineering practice. Generally, this soil type has numerous problems due to its low strength, high compressibility and high level of volumetric changes. Clay needs to be improved before it can be used in road construction, dams, slurry walls, airports and waste landfills. Improved gradation, a reduction in plasticity and swelling potential, as well as an increase in strength and workability, generally improve the stability of clay. Clay is a fine-grained soil, but not all fine-grained soils are clay. Clay minerals are very electrochemically active; thus, they affect soil microstructures. Due to these characteristics, many important soil problems related to clay have been observed in the past, the importance of which is understood. In this chapter, the properties of clay, as well as the use of clay in geotechnical engineering and geotechnical studies on clay, are examined.

**Keywords:** clay, soils, geotechnical properties, soil problems, microstructure
