Clay dispersion in adobe soil resources by ultrasonic treatment: method development and performance assessment on adobe products
CLAYS AND CLAY MINERALS, cilt.74, sa.e39, ss.1-22, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 74 Sayı: e39
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1017/cmn.2026.10056
- Dergi Adı: CLAYS AND CLAY MINERALS
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Scopus, Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Compendex, Geobase, CAB Abstracts
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-22
- Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Depletion of adobe soil resources and the need for affordable and sustainable dwelling construction demand effective use of the remaining resources. The present study focused on developing a treatment method to disperse the naturally occurring clay content in adobe soil resources. The impact of the ultrasonic treatment method proposed was assessed by performance analysis conducted on treated adobe soil and the adobe materials produced. The ultrasonic treatment was conducted on three soil resources: montmorillonite-rich, kaolinite-rich, and montmorillonite- and kaolinite-rich, in their respective clay fractions. The clay dispersion in the mixture was monitored using the methylene blue test and confirmed by particle-size distribution and consistency limits analyses. The order of the treatment process and optimum durations of between 4 and 5 h for mixing the soil samples were key factors in the efficient dispersion of clay in the soils. This research showed that the clay dispersion treatment: (1) increased the dispersed clay fraction, enabling soil resources with initially insufficient clay content (<10%) to reach the recommended range of 10–40% for adobe production and bringing the consistency limits of the three soil resources within the acceptable range; and (2) was particularly effective for montmorillonite-rich soil resources, indicating that its effectiveness depends on clay type. The performance analyses conducted on adobe products showed that: (1) compared with untreated adobe samples using natural adobe soil, the treated samples produced by the dispersed clay in adobe soil exhibited greater compressive and flexural strengths reaching 8.18 MPa and 0.53 MPa, respectively; (2) the dispersed clay content, the presence of clay-sized calcite, and significant pozzolanic activity were the determinative compositional features of adobe mixtures for improved mechanical performance.