Liquid limit and the temperature sensitivity of clays

The Atterberg Limits have been repeatedly shown to be useful indicators of clay behaviour. This paper proposes that they should also be used to assess the effect of temperature on clays. To improve on previous attempts, this paper describes a new simple and rapid method by which such assessments can be made. The method enables consistent results to be obtained over a larger range of temperatures (i.e. 10-80 °C) than previously possible. This method is, therefore, potentially useful when assessing the behaviour of clay soils which are likely to be exposed to elevated temperature, such as landfill liners. Results are presented for kaolinite, smectite and mixtures of these clays of various percentages. These demonstrate that smectites are considerably more sensitive to temperature changes than kaolinites. For smectitic clay the liquid limit increases with temperature, whereas a very slight decrease occurs with kaolinite. The variation in liquid limit appears to be closely related to the specific surface area of the clay, and the resulting nature of inter-particle contacts.