Lime- and Cement-Treated Sandy Lean Clay for Highway Subgrade in China
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32, Issue 1
Abstract
Sandy lean clay (SLC) has a high content of fine sand and silt with poor compressibility and water stability. It threatens the structural stability of highways in regions where this soil type is common. Improvement of SLC for enhancing highway structural stability has attracted wide research interest. Therefore, based on a study of the basic physical-mechanical characteristics of sandy lean clay along the Puyong Expressway, the water stability of the compacted soils was investigated based on a series of indices, including cohesion, angle of internal friction, and degree of compaction. The characteristics of cement- or lime-treated soil were also studied. The results show that the water status has a great effect on the cohesion of SLC. The soaked California bearing ratio (CBR) for untreated SLC was only about 3% to 37% that of unsoaked CBR, depending on the moisture content, indicating that untreated SLC has very weak water stability. It is suggested that the water content of SLC should be controlled at a level slightly higher than the optimal moisture content () during compaction. The degree of compaction should not be used as the compaction quality control index when the subgrade is filled with SLC. CBR and other strength indicators should be used as the compaction quality control indices of SLC subgrade. Based on the results of numerical simulations using the finite-element method, improvement measures of each layer and the corresponding waterproof measures of the SLC subgrade are recommended when the embankment is 25 m thick.
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Data Availability Statement
All data and models used in this study are available from the corresponding author by request.
Acknowledgments
This paper is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (51778048 and 41371081) and the Railway Corporation of China (2016G003-B).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32 • Issue 1 • January 2020
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 13, 2018
Accepted: Jun 27, 2019
Published online: Oct 31, 2019
Published in print: Jan 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Mar 31, 2020
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