Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 2022, 10, 410-428 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jmmce ISSN Online: 2327-4085 ISSN Print: 2327-4077 DOI: 10.4236/jmmce.2022.105029 Sep. 27, 2022 410 J. Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering Characterization of the Activity, Mineralogy and Correlations between the Properties of Clayey Soils Louis Ahouet 1,2,3* , Sorel Dzaba 2 , Brice Dublin Mbossa Elenga 2 , Sylvain Ndinga Okina 2 , Fabien T. Kimbatsa 2 1 Higher Institute of Architecture, Urbanism, Building and Public Works, Denis Sassou N’guesso University, Brazzaville, Congo 2 Higher Polytechnic National School (ENSP), Marien Ngouabi University, Brazzaville, Congo 3 Building and Publics Works Control Office (BCBTP), Brazzaville, Congo Abstract The activity is related to the mineralogy and geological history of clays. Soils with the same value of the liquidity limit or plasticity index can have very dif- ferent characteristics depending on the amount and type of clay minerals. The methylene blue value characterizes the activity of the clays and reflects the surface activity. Ten inactive soils contain minerals (kaolinite, illite), these soils absorb little water. Two swelling soils have normal activity and are com- posed of minerals (kaolinite, illite, Montmorillonite). The relationships be- tween clayey soils properties, their activities and between the activity and the liquidity limit are defined. The correlations obtained are linear fit and expo- nential and sigmoidal fits. The correlations obtained with a coefficient of de- termination of R 2 (0.859 - 0.999) can be used to characterize and predict cer- tain parameters of fine-grained soils as a function of clay content. Keywords Activity, Specific Surface Area, Cation Exchange Capacity, Mineralogy, Atterberg Limit 1. Introduction Activity is an approximately linear relationship between the plasticity index and the clay fraction [1]. Clay soils have been classified into “inactive”, “normal” and “active” clays [1]. The clay fraction indicates the variation of the physic-chemical potential of soil as a function of the plasticity index and the increase in clay frac- tion. In other words, the variation in soil plasticity along the line should reflect How to cite this paper: Ahouet, L., Dzaba, S., Elenga, B.D.M., Okina, S.N. and Kim- batsa, F.T. (2022) Characterization of the Activity, Mineralogy and Correlations be- tween the Properties of Clayey Soils. Jour- nal of Minerals and Materials Characteriza- tion and Engineering, 10, 410-428. https://doi.org/10.4236/jmmce.2022.105029 Received: August 25, 2022 Accepted: September 24, 2022 Published: September 27, 2022 Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access