Erosion resistance

An important parameter for the use of clay in construction works, such as flood defence systems, is its resistance to erosion. To determine this, a set of requirements have been compiled nationally, as described in the Standard RAW-analyses (CROW) and the technical report ‘Clay for dykes’,  as well as a set of standardised analyses to test for these requirements.

To establish the erosion resistance of clay it is important to analyse the liquid limit, plastic limit, sand percentage, carbonate content, organic matter content and pore water salinity. This calls for the determination of the Atterberg Limits, which, according to the RAW, should be performed using a Casagrande device. Furthermore, a full particle size distribution (for all fractions) needs to be executed to establish the percentage of sand in the clay. Finally, the organic matter content  as well as the carbonate content are found out via the chemical method using H₂O₂ and HCL.