Method A
The seating pressure (at least 1 kPa) is applied to the clay specimen. After the initial deformations at the seating pressure are complete, the specimen is inundated with water in the oedometer cell and is allowed to swell vertically. The time-swell curve typically consists of three regions. An initial swell region, primary swell region, and secondary swell region (Figure 2.1). The minor initial swell is attributed to swelling of the macrostructure, while the major primary swell and minor secondary swell is attributed to microstructural swelling (Rao et al., 2006). The specimen is stepwise loaded after primary swell is complete using a