Effect of water salinity on Atterberg limits of El-Hodna sabkha soil

Sabkha soils are recent saline sediments widely distributed in Algeria and other countries. As they are characterised by low strength and high compressibility, they are considered to be difficult foundation soils that pose special problems for design and construction engineering. This study deals with the effect of salts on the determination of the water content and Atterberg limits of sabkha soils. The tests were performed using distilled water, natural sabkha brine and saline solutions with different salt concentrations. The results indicate that the liquid and plastic limits decrease with pore fluid salinity when the conventional water content procedure is used, but increase when the fluid content method is used. Also, the results revealed that the oven-drying time of saline soils is highly affected by the size of soil clods and surface salt precipitation.