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Lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA) or expanded clay (exclay) is a lightweight aggregate made by heating clay to around 1,200 °C (2,190 °F) in a rotary kiln. The heating process causes gases trapped in the clay to expand, forming thousands of small bubbles and giving the material a porous structure.
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals [1] (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, Al 2 Si 2 O 5 4).
For instance, soils with a small amount of expansive clay minerals will not expand as much when exposed to moisture as a soil with a large amount of the same clay minerals. [5] If a soil is composed of at least 5 percent of these clay minerals by weight, it could have the ability to shrink and swell.
Bentonite layers from an ancient deposit of weathered volcanic ash tuff in Wyoming Gray shale and bentonites (Benton Shale; Colorado Springs, Colorado). Bentonite (/ ˈ b ɛ n t ə n aɪ t / BEN-tə-nyte) [1] [2] is an absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite (a type of smectite) which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite.
Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al 2 Si 2 O 5 4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces.
Clay cannot be resolved by optical microscopes as its particles are 0.002 mm (7.9 × 10 −5 in) or less in diameter and a thickness of only 10 angstroms (10 −10 m). [16] [17] In medium-textured soils, clay is often washed downward through the soil profile (a process called eluviation) and accumulates in the subsoil (a process called ...
The specific weight, also known as the unit weight (symbol γ, the Greek letter gamma), is a volume-specific quantity defined as the weight W divided by the volume V of a material: = / Equivalently, it may also be formulated as the product of density, ρ, and gravity acceleration, g: = Its unit of measurement in the International System of Units (SI) is newton per cubic metre (N/m 3), with ...
Soil types by clay, silt and sand composition as used by the United States Department of Agriculture. Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > 63 micrometres (0.0025 in)), silt (particle size > 2 micrometres (7.9 × 10 −5 in)), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < 2 micrometres (7.9 × 10 −5 in)).