Page 176 - Geotechnical Engineering Soil and Foundation Principles and Practice
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Soil Fabric and Structure
Soil Fabric and Structure 171
Figure 8.4
Two-dimensional
representations of
flocculated and
dispersed clay
structures.
Figure 8.5
Simulated random
settlement of clay
flocs creating a
‘‘honeycomb’’
structure.
Even though clay particles are too small to be individually resolved in a light
microscope, a parallel orientation can be inferred from viewing vertically oriented
thin sections in a polarizing microscope. Clay mineral grains become dark when
their optical axes are aligned with the polarizing axes of the microscope, so the
degree of preferred orientation can be obtained by measuring light transmission as
the stage is rotated.
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