Abstract:
Swelling soils are a major engineering problem and their detection is
one of the most important site investigation undertakings in the construction
industry. Methods of their detection have been developed over the years, most of
which utilize the soil physical properties as the indices of their identification.
Some of these have proved quite expensive and time-consuming. In this research
an alternative, relatively faster and cheaper method is explored. The method
involves the use of Methylene Blue Absorption (MBA) as the engineering index
to estimate the Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and spectral absorption feature
characteristics as the mineral identification method. The relationship between the
MBA and the characteristics of the absorption features is used to explore the
possibility of estimating CEC from spectral data.