Loading Duration Effect on the Compressibility Characteristics of Treated Semi-Arid Soil

For soils originating from semi-arid terrains that develop pozzolanic reactivity with additives, the duration of load increment may not reflect the true nature of consolidation behavior when tested with the conventional approach of testing with the loading duration of 24 h. Thus, to assess the consolidation properties of Al-Ghat soil with lime, it is proposed to keep the duration of loading as minimum as possible and it is varied as 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 24 h. It is observed that the addition of lime significantly affects the compressibility behavior of Al-Ghat soil. Further, at any pressure increment, the final equilibrium void ratio values increase with the increase in duration of loading. The difference in change in void ratio reduces as duration of load increment increases upon lime treatment. When the duration of loading increment is increased from 30 min to 24 h, relatively more curing time is allowed for the pozzolanic reactions to occur, which significantly reduces the resultant difference in decrease in void ratio.