THE CHEMICAL-MINERALOGICAL COMPOSITION AND THEIR EFFECT ON PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF COHESIVE SOILS IN TIRANA AREA, ALBANIA

The results of chemical and mineralogical composition of cohesive soils of Tirana area, as well as the effects on some chemico-physical properties are presented in the paper. The investigations were completed from 2000 to the end of 2010 in the Tirana region, Albania. The physical and mechanical tests were carried out for all cohesive soil specimens, while the chemical and mineralogical test was done for the representative soil types from the studied areas. Some correlations between chemical-mineralogical compositions and clay activity as well as liquid limit could be shown. In this paper, the effects of chemicalmineralogical composition on physical-mechanical properties, based on correlations between chemical and mineralogical elements with physical properties (as Atterberg limits), clay activity and mechanical properties (as cohesion parameters) were examined.