Test: Clay Material & Soil Structure- 2 - Civil Engineering (CE) MCQ

Both illite and montmorillonite are made up of sheet like unit.

Montmorillonite: This is the most common of all the clay minerals in expansive clay soils.

The mineral is made up of sheet-like units. The basic structure of each unit is made up of gibbsite sheet (i.e. the octahedral sheet) sandwiched between two silica sheets. The thickness of each unit (or sheet) is about 10 Ȧ and the dimensions in the other two directions are indefinite.

Soil structure is an important factor which influences many soil properties such as permeability, compressibility, and shear strength.

Single grained structure is usually found in coarse-grained soil.

Soil structure is defined as the arrangement and state of aggregation of soil particle in a soil mass.

An arrangement composed of ‘flocs’ of soil particle is known as flocculent structure. As the particles are oriented ‘edge-to-edge’ (or) ‘edge-to-face’ with respect to one another.

In dispersed structure of particle are oriented face to face with one another in a dispersed state.

An arrangement of coarse grains forming a skeleton and matrix represent composite soils.

Honey comb structure is composed of loosely arranged bundle of particle. Hence they have comparatively less stable structure than others.

The honeycomb, flocculent and dispersed structures are found in fine-grained soils.

The particles of coarse-grained soils are sometimes called as bulky particles and these do not possess plasticity and cohesion.  The single grained structure is characteristic of coarse-grained soils.