Bull Eng Geol Environ (2007) 66:467–472

DOI 10.1007/s10064-007-0086-1

ORIGINAL PAPER

The effect of swelling clays on a water transport canal between

Köklüce HPP and Erbaa HPP (Turkey)
Isßık Yilmaz

Received: 30 June 2006 / Accepted: 20 January 2007 / Published online: 24 February 2007

Springer-Verlag 2007

Abstract Geological mapping has confirmed the pres-
ence of swelling clays in the area of the proposed water
transport canal between Köklüce and Erbaa, Turkey. A
swelling pressure distribution map was prepared for this
part of the route, based mainly on the analyses of soils in
the Erbaa and Niksar basins. It is concluded that the po-
tential swelling pressures will exceed the overburden
weight of the reinforced concrete canal, not only when
empty but also when full. In addition, variations in the
characteristics of the soil mean differential movement is
likely along the alignment, particularly important as the
canal is planned to be a rigid structure. Recommendations
are made to minimise the effect.
Keywords Clay
Swell percent
Swell pressure

Differential movement
Canal route
Turkey
Résumé La cartographie géologique a confirmé la pré-
sence d’argiles gonflantes dans la région du canal de
transfert d’eau entre Köklüce et Erbaa en Turquie. Une
carte représentant les pressions de gonflement a été pré-
parée pour cette section du canal, principalement basée sur
des analyses de sols des bassins d’Erbaa et Niksar. Il est
apparu que les pressions de gonflement potentielles
dépasseront le poids des terrains au niveau des revêtements
en béton armé, non seulement pour le canal vide mais aussi
pour le canal plein. De plus, la variabilité des propriétés des
sols le long du tracé se traduira par des mouvements
I. Yilmaz (&)
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Geology,
Cumhuriyet University, 58140 Sivas, Turkey
e-mail: iyilmaz@cumhuriyet.edu.tr
différentiels, avec des conséquences importantes sur le
comportement de la structure conçue pour être rigide. Des
recommandations sont faites pour minimiser ces effets.
Mots clés Argile
Taux de gonflement
Pression de
gonflement
Mouvements différentiels
Canal
Turquie
Introduction
The potential of clay minerals to cause shrink/swell in fine-
grained soils is well established in geotechnical engineer-
ing. Whilst the extent of the shrink/swell will be affected
by the climate and the overburden stress, the swelling
pressure during the expansion of clays is greater than the
loading for most buildings. What is less frequently re-
ported, however, is the influence of shrink/swell on
waterways, such as canals, which may affect the integrity
of the structure.
This paper discusses the 60.35 km long water trans-
portation canal proposed between the Köklüce and Erbaa
hydroelectric power plants (Fig. 1), 1.5 km of which is in
tunnel. The dimensions of the water transportation canal
proposed can be seen in Fig. 2. The flow capacity is 80 m3/
s. Respective surcharge pressures applied to the canal base
and sides will vary from 31.4 to 6.9 kPa for the full and
empty canal.
As seen in Fig. 1, the geology of the study area
encompasses six units ranging in age from Upper Juras-
sic–Lower Cretaceous to Quaternary (Yilmaz 1998;
Yılmaz and Karacan 2002). The study was undertaken to
estimate the possible deformation of the canal due to the
swelling potential of the clayey soils in the Niksar and
Erbaa basins on the right bank of the Kelkit River. Ini-
tially, geological mapping was undertaken and disturbed/

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Fig. 1 Geological map of the
study area (Yılmaz 1998)
Fig. 2 Cross-section and dimensions of trapezoidal canal proposed
(DSI_ 1990)
undisturbed soil samples obtained from pits in various
representative locations; 32 undisturbed and 64 disturbed
samples from depths of between 3 and 6 m. Based on
field observations and drill logs, soil profiles were con-
structed and laboratory testing undertaken to determine
the mineralogy, index properties and swelling character-
istics of the soils.
In order to evaluate the relationship between the min-
eralogical and geotechnical characteristics of the soils,
whole rock powder diffractometry was undertaken on 32
samples and X-ray diffractometry on 32 oriented clay-size
fractions. The results indicate that the soils are composed
of clay minerals, calcite, quartz and feldspar with the semi-
quantitative composition (Brindley 1980) of clay minerals
being ‡50% (Fig. 3; Table 1). Kaolinite and Ca-smectite
appear to be the dominant clay minerals, whereas illite and
chlorite occur in lesser proportions.
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I. Yilmaz
Swelling characteristics of clayey soils on the route
Grain size distribution analyses showed that the fine-
grained fraction forms between 63 and 95% of the material
while the clay fraction alone varies between 22 and 60%.
As seen in Fig. 4, the majority of the Atterberg limits plot
above the A line on the Casagrande chart, although 2%
indicate a more silty material (ML). The distribution of the
test results on the swelling potential chart of Van Der
Merwe (1964; see Fig. 5) indicates 10 of the 48 samples
from the Niksar basin have a low swelling potential, 21
have moderate swelling potential and 17 have high swell-
ing potential. For the 48 clayey soils in the Erbaa basin, 5
samples have a low, 20 moderate, 19 high and 4 very high
swelling potential.
To determine the swelling pressure and percentage of
the study area soils affected, swelling tests were undertaken
on 32 undisturbed soil samples taken from various loca-
tions, in accordance with ASTM (1994) (D-4546, 1994).
The test samples had a radius of 50 mm and a pre-loading
pressure of 7 kPa was used. Table 2 indicates that for the
Niksar samples, the swelling pressure rose to 93.1 kPa
while for the Erbaa samples the maximum swelling pres-
sure was 44.1 kPa. As seen in Fig. 6 the characteristic
swell percent–time (%S–t) plots indicate that the maximum
swelling percentage varied from 2.93% for the Erbaa
samples to 3.54% for the Niksar samples. The relatively
higher values for the Niksar basin samples are due to the
higher smectite content and liquid limit value.
It is well known that an increase in moisture content
causes clayey soils to swell; the uplift forces created cause
Swelling clays in Turkey 469

Fig. 3 Characteristic X-ray

diffraction diagrams: a whole-
rock powder, and b oriented
clay-size material

Table 1 Mineralogical composition of the soils, in percent heaving, cracking and break up of the surface layers. The
Minimum Maximum X Sx
depth to which periodic changes of moisture occur in this
area is approximately 4 m. Vijayvergiya and Ghazally
Niksar Basin (1974) analyzed various soil test results and proposed a
Clay 54 84 65.9 7.297 correlation between the free swell, liquid limit and natural
Calcite 2 26 11.7 6.899 water content. O’Neil and Poormoayed (1980) developed a
Quartz 3 9 6.4 1.356 relationship (Eq. 1) for calculating the free surface swell
Feldspar 6 38 15.5 6.556 from the chart prepared by Vijayvergiya and Ghazally
(1974).
Erbaa Basin
Clay 55 72 63.8 4.278 DSF ¼ 0:0033Z%SDSF ; ð1Þ
Calcite 7 20 12.9 2.657
Quartz 7 15 11.1 2.112 where DSF = free surface swell, Z = depth of the saturated
Feldspar 7 26 12.1 4.421 zone and %S = free swell as percent.
In the project area, the water transportation canal will be
Whole study area
constructed of reinforced concrete and hence could be
Clay 54 84 65.3 6.211
classified as a rigid structure. In each of the sampling
Calcite 2 26 11.9 5.623
locations of the study area, free surface swell values were
Quartz 3 15 8.5 2.869
calculated by using the above formula. The results of the
Feldspar 6 38 14.1 5.910
calculations showed that the lowest free surface swell was
X Arithmetic mean value, Sx Standard deviation 6.7 mm, while the highest was 44.5 mm. The difference

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470 I. Yilmaz

Fig. 4 Distribution of the samples on plasticity chart

Fig. 6 Characteristic percentage swell (S%) versus time (t) graphs

Table 3 Classification of
Differential Classification
differential ground movement
movement (mm)
(Anonymous 1981)
0–5 Very good
5–10 Good
10–25 Moderate
25–50 Severe
>50 Very severe

movements proposed by BRE Digest 250 (Anonymous

Fig. 5 Distribution of soil samples on the ‘‘swelling potential’’ chart
1981; see Table 3).
of Van Der Merwe (1964) The distribution of swelling pressures over the area from
Köklüce HEP to Erbaa HEP is depicted in Fig. 7. The
effect of the swelling characteristics of the soils on the
Table 2 Statistical results of the swelling parameters of the soils in water transport canal was assessed in a cross-section along
the study area
two basins by using the surface heave values, swelling
Minimum Maximum X Sx pressure and percent values obtained, together with the
Niksar Basin canal surcharge pressures. The surface topography after the
Swell pressure (Psf), kPa 9.8 93.1 40.2 0.232 postulated heave is compared with the swelling pressures
Swell percent (%S) 1.30 3.54 2.02 0.738
of the soils in the empty and full surcharge conditions is
shown in Fig. 8a and b for Erbaa and Niksar, respectively.
Erbaa Basin Fill and empty surcharge pressures of the canal can be seen
Swell pressure (Psf), kPa 9.8 44.1 29.4 0.128 on Fig. 8a, b. As seen in Figs. 7 and 8, in many locations
Swell percent (%S) 0.48 2.93 1.62 1.012 the swelling pressures are higher than canal surcharge
pressures.
Whole study area
Swell pressure (Psf), kPa 9.8 93.1 35.3 0.197
Swell percent (%S) 0.48 3.54 1.84 0.877
Discussion and conclusions
X Arithmetic mean value, Sx standard deviation
Soils having a high swelling capacity are widely distributed
between the maximum and minimum surface heave values in the study area and could cause serious heave problems for
is approximately 40 mm, which would be ‘‘severe’’ the proposed canal structure as the potential swelling
according to the classification of differential ground pressures are often in excess of the pressures of the empty

123
Swelling clays in Turkey 471

Fig. 7 Map of swell pressure

distribution

Fig. 8 Comparison of the swell

pressures with canal surcharge
pressures in each location, and
topography after surface heave:
a. Erbaa basin and b Niksar
basin

and full canal. Differential movements along the line where
the soils have different swelling potential characteristics
could cause further damage to the reinforced concrete canal.
In view of these conditions, it will be important that the
area through which the canal passes is very well drained
and every effort is made to prevent leakage from the canal,
thus reducing the possibility of variations in moisture
content of the soil. In order to reduce or eliminate ground
movements caused by underlying swelling soils, the fol-
lowing remediation measures should be considered.
1. Replacement or partial replacement of expansive soils
with non-expansive soils. The materials replaced
should have a minimum thickness of 1 m (Chen 1988).

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2. The amount of heave of expansive soils can be reduced
significantly if they are compacted at low densities and
high moisture content.
3. Lime stabilization of expansive soils can minimize the
amount of shrinkage and swelling.
4. In the view of the potential swell pressures, it is rec-
ommended that the canal should never be completely
emptied.
References
Anonymous, (1981) Assessment of damage in low-rise buildings,
with particular reference to progressive foundation movement.
Building Research Establishment, Digest 251, Her Mjesty’s
Stationary Office, London, p 20
ASTM (1994) Annual book of ASTM standards (ASTM, D-4546),
soil and rock (I):D420-D4914, V. 04.08: 693–699
Brindley GW (1980) Quantitative X-ray mineral analysis of clays, In:
Brindley GW, Brown G (eds) Crystal structures of clay minerals
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I. Yilmaz
and their X-ray identification, Mineralogical Society, London, pp
411–438
Chen FH (1988) Foundations of expansive soils. Elsevier, Amster-
dam, p 463
O’Neil MW, Poormoayed N (1980) Methodology for foundations on
expansive clays. J Geotech Eng Div Am Soc Civil Eng
106(GT12):1345–1367
Van Der Merwe DH (1964) The prediction of heave from the
plasticity index and percentage clay fraction of soils. Civil Eng
South Afr 6(6):103–106
Vijayvergiya VN, Ghazzaly OI (1974) Prediction of swelling
potential of natural clays. In: Proceedings, 3rd international
research and engineering conference on expansive clays. pp
227–234
Yılmaz I (1998) Köklüce regülatörü-Erbaa HES iletim hattı
güzergahındaki alüvyal zeminlerin ßs isßme ve oturma sorunlarının
jeo-mühendislik değerlendirmesi (in Turkish with English
abstract). PhD Thesis, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, p 102
Yılmaz I, Karacan E (2002) Geotechnical properties of clayey alluvial
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