Experimental Studies and Modeling of High-Sulfate Soil Stabilization
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 5
Abstract
An experimental study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of lime stabilization with precompaction mellowing in stabilizing six different high-sulfate soils. Three mellowing times, 0, 3, and 7 days were studied. A test suite comprising engineering and chemical tests was performed on untreated and lime-treated high-sulfate soils. Four of the six soils considered in the research study responded positively to the lime stabilization with a precompaction mellowing period. Two soils with soluble sulfate levels exceeding 30,000 ppm were not successfully stabilized with the precompaction mellowing, resulting in the chemical treatments, and higher swell strain magnitudes. Two swell prediction methodologies were developed, one based on sulfate content consumed other based on compaction void ratio of the treated soils. Both methods rely on stoichiometric principles with mass-volume relationships of chemical reactions. Swell strains predicted by both methods were analyzed and compared with measured swell strains of all soils at different mellowing periods. Results showed that the sulfate content–based method predictions were not in agreement with the measured data, whereas the void ratio–based method provided better swell strain predictions. Better prediction by this method was attributed to accounting for ettringite crystal growth inside the void space of the treated soils. Potential implementation of this method to screen chemical treatments of high-sulfate soils for effective stabilization was described.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The authors express their sincere appreciation to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for their research funding, and acknowledge Wade Odell, P.E., of the TxDOT Research and Technology Implementation (RTI) Office for his assistance with this research. The authors also acknowledge Richard Williammee, Ahmed Gaily, Bhaskar Chittoori, Aravind Pedarla, and others. Other related projects funded by National Science Foundation and USACE Fort Worth District have been helpful in the essential understanding of the present knowledge base of sulfate heaving in treated soils.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 5 • May 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 18, 2018
Accepted: Nov 18, 2019
Published online: Mar 6, 2020
Published in print: May 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Aug 6, 2020
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