The aim of this project is to: 1) acquire understanding of clay deformation due to geomechanical and geochemical processes and 2) quantify the interacting  processes such as compaction and shrinkage in different geochemical states, as a function of the clay mineralogical composition and content, pore-water salinity, organic matter characteristics, cation occupancy/exchange, void ratio, effective stress, stress duration and depth. The new insights will be used to create clay compaction and shrinkage modules, or a combined module if possible, in addition to the existing clay-and-peat compaction models. As these are two different types of processes, occurring at different temporal scales. The creation of these modules will establish a better representation of clay deformation than the already existing clay-and-peat deformation models, as the deformation of clay is delayed compared to that of peat and different hydro-geochemical processes occur at aggregate and particle level. The module(s) will be validated with a representative set of field samples from the Netherlands.

(Co-)Promotors:

dr. Esther Stouthamer

prof. dr. Jasper Griffioen

dr. Gilles Erkens