Modelling Hydration Swelling and Weakening of Montmorillonite Particles in Mudstone
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
It is an interesting article. Therefore, these are some of my comments mainly directed in the form rather than in the content.
Did you analyzed more than 2 images from SEM (Figure 3)? I will suggest to mention if are analyzed more images to assess the presence of micro-cracks and pores in the analyzed samples.
The figures numbering is not correct. After figure 3 (SEM images) the numbering is restarting and it is not correct through the text as well.
Paragraphs 3.2 and 3.3 are presenting some results while being grouped in the experiments section. A rearrangement of these paragraphs (maybe in the results section) can make the reading process of the article easier.
Figure 10 (pag.9) is confusing with a lot of random-placed information on it.
Pag.11, figure 3 has again an incorrect numbering.
Correction of all the fields "Error! Reference source not found." has to be done in the revised manuscript.
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
I am very grateful to your comments for the manuscript. According with your advice, we amended the relevant part in manuscript. Some of your questions were answered as attachment.
Kind regards,
Changlun SUN.
Dr. CUMT
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The article has a high scientific interest. The study is well planned, and the characterization of the material is correct. The experimental tests are very interesting, both the compaction test and the compression test. The results are very interesting. The graphics are clear and well explained. The conclusions, they are a little poor, should be revised and completed. In general it seems an interesting article. It has enough quality to be published.
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
I am very grateful to your comments for the manuscript. According with your advice, we amended the relevant part in manuscript. Some of your questions were answered as attachment.
Kind regards,
Changlun SUN.
Dr. CUMT
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The research introduction must be improved. It is helpful to show and explain the research method in a separate section and in a clear way.
It is mentioned that montmorillonite density decrease by increasing the water content, based on the results it looks like right in certain range of water content and under specific compressive stress(25Mpa). How you end up choosing the compaction stress in the range from 5 Mpa to 25 Mpa?
The figures in the text are mixed up and are not in order. The referencing to the photo and tables does not work and comes with the error message.
The verifying the calculated equations with experimental results must be improved.
The mudstone samples are not included just montmorillonite. How you expand your research results to samples with different composition than what you have in the current study?
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
I am very grateful to your comments for the manuscript. According with your advice, we amended the relevant part in manuscript. Some of your questions were answered as attachment.
Kind regards,
Changlun SUN.
Dr. CUMT
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
