ABSTRACT
A highly compacted bentonite material may be achieved if most of the water content is first removed by drying the parent material (bentonite “rock” or bentonite powder). At water contents of 2-4% and static applied stresses of 50-60 MPa, dry densities close to 2 Mg/m3 may be achieved. The swelling pressure of such a highly compacted material may reach very high values (tens of MPa) as shown in Figure 2. Removing most of the water leaves only one (or zero) water layers adsorbed to the smectite crystals and suction becomes extremely high (>250 MPa).
