ABSTRACT
A method designed to measure the thermal dilatation coefficient of unsaturated soils is presented. It is based on the ASTM 4535-85 standard with some important considerations taken into account. A number of tests following this methodology were performed on unsaturated swelling clay. Thermal dilatation coefficients were measured over a temperature range from 25 to 65°C for material dry densities and saturation degrees varying between 16–17 kN/m3 and 60–95%, respectively. The results are somewhat disperse, nevertheless, a clear trend with regard to temperature can be observed and thermal dilatation coefficient values can be extracted.
