Effects of dehydration and grinding on the mechanical shear behaviour of Ca-rich montmorillonite

In order to investigate in detail the effects of dehydration and grinding on the mechanical shear behaviour of Ca-rich montmorillonite, a cycle of specific experimental shear deformation tests were performed on five typology of samples, preliminary controlled by thermal analysis (TG, DTA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD): (1) a natural Ca-montmorillonite containing about 5% of adsorbed water; (2) the same montmorillonite heated at 80 °C for 2 h to...