Expansivity of Neogene clays and glacial tills from Central Poland

The revision of classification methodologies for determination of soil expansivity revealed that parameters most frequently used for this purpose are: the liquid limit, plasticity index and swelling parameters which also predominate in older systems of expansive soil assessment, regarded as classical. Seventy-nine soil samples, including Neogene clays and glaciall tills from Central Poland, with a wide range of plasticity were examined for a comparative analysis of soil expansivity with a use of eight empirical methods. The study revealed that Neogene clays are mostly highly and very highly expansive, while glacial tills exhibit low to medium expansivity. Compared to classifications considering soil mineralogy indicators, those correlated solely to Atterberg limits and related parameters were found to overestimate soil expansivity. It is evident that the classifications are in better agreement for glacial tills than for clays. The comparison of mineral composition measured and predicted from swelling tests yielded consistent results.