Influence of Lime Dosage on Stabilization Effectiveness of Montmorillonite Dominant Clays

Lime treatment is a widely used method for stabilizing expansive soils. In certain types of clayey soils, the stabilization is ineffective, mainly due to the complex reactions of stabilizer with the Montmorillonite clay mineral (MM). Hence, a research study was conducted with an objective to understand the impacts of various lime dosage levels on the engineering performance of clays containing different amounts of montmorillonite mineral fraction. A series of experiments were carried out on three types of expansive clays stabilized with quick lime. These experiments included unconfined compressive strength and three dimensional volumetric swell strains on soil specimens subjected to durability studies. The higher the MM content of a soil, the treated soil has shown vulnerability to undergo premature failures. Results also showed that MM fraction has considerable influence on the stabilizing ability of the soil.