Measurement of the elastic properties of swelling clay minerals using the digital image correlation method on a single macroscopic crystal

This approach was applied to a vermiculite crystal, with dimensions of 5 × 5 mm2 and a thickness of 1 mm; the value obtained for the undrained uniaxial Young's modulus was 32.3 ± 3.9 GPa. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first value for Young's modulus proposed in the literature for a natural and pure swelling clay mineral and is consistent with those obtained from synthetic samples and molecular dynamics simulations.