Eighth International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Case Study: Use of Geopolymers to Evaluate the Swell-Shrink Behavior of Native Clay in North Texas
Publication: Geo-Congress 2019: Soil Improvement (GSP 309)
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of a study conducted on expansive soil using alumino-silicate binders known as geopolymers. As part of the study, an experimental program was developed to characterize the native soil obtained from North Texas. A metakaolin-based geopolymer was synthesized using potassium hydroxide as the alkali-activator. The soil was treated with a pre-determined dosage of geopolymer and tested for swell-shrink behavior, using one-dimensional swell, and linear shrinkage bar tests. Results show significant reduction in swelling, shrinkage, and plasticity characteristics. These outcomes indicate that geopolymer stabilized materials are beneficial in mitigating volume-change behavior of expansive soils, and should be further evaluated as an effective soil stabilizer for the efficient design of sustainable and distress-free infrastructure for problematic soil conditions.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was funded by the USDOT’s Transportation Consortium for South-Central States (Tran-SET) Program, under the research grant 17GTTAM02. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The first author of this paper is also a recipient of the 2017-2018 Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship, and is grateful for the financial support provided. Any findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency.
REFERENCES
Banerjee, A. (2017). “Response of Unsaturated Soils under Monotonic and Dynamic Loading over moderate Suction States.” Doctoral Dissertation, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas.
Caballero, S., Acharya, R., Banerjee, A., Bheemasetti, T. V, Puppala, A., and Patil, U. (2016). “Sustainable Slope Stabilization Using Biopolymer-Reinforced Soil.” Geo-Chicago 2016, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA, 116–126.
Chakraborty, S., and Nair, S. (2017). “Impact of different hydrated cementitious phases on moisture-induced damage in lime-stabilised subgrade soils.” Road Materials and Pavement Design, 1–17.
Chakraborty, S., and Nair, S. (2018). “Impact of curing time on moisture-induced damage in lime-treated soils.” International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 1–13.
Cheng, T.W., and J.P. Chiu. (2003). “Fire-resistant geopolymer produced by granulated blast furnace slag”. Minerals Engineering. 16 (3): 205-210.
Cox, D. W. (1978). “Volume Change of Compacted Clay Fill.” Clay Fills, Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 79–86.
Davidovits, J. (1991). “Geopolymers: Inorganic polymeric new materials”. Journal of Thermal Analysis. 37 (8): 1633-1656.
Duxson, P., Fernández-JiméneZ, A., Provis, J.L., Lukey, G.C., Palomo, A., and van Deventer, J.S. (2007). “Geopolymer technology: the current state of the art”. Journal of Materials Science: Full Set - Includes `Journal of Materials Science Letters'. 42 (9): 2917-2933.
Duxson, P., Provis, J.L., Lukey, G.C., Separovic, F., and van Deventer, J.S. (2005). “29Si NMR study of structural ordering in aluminosilicate geopolymer gels”. Langmuir: the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids. 21 (7): 3028-36.
Gartner, Ellis. (2004). “Industrially Interesting Approaches to “Low-CO2” Cements”. Cement and Concrete Research. 34. 1489-1498.
Gordon, M., Bell, J. L., and Kriven, W. M. (2005). Comparison of naturally and synthetically-derived, potassium-based geopolymers. Ceramic Transactions, 165, 95-106.
Hausmann, M. R. (1990). Engineering principles of ground modification, McGraw-Hill, New York.
He, S., Yu, X., Banerjee, A., Puppala, A.J. (2018). Expansive Soil Treatment with Ionic Soil Stabilizer. 97th Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Record, Washington, D.C., Jan 7-11, 2018.
Lizcano, M., Gonzalez, A., Basu, S., Lozano, K., and Radovic, M. (2012). Effects of Water Content and Chemical Composition on Structural Properties of Alkaline Activated Metakaolin-Based Geopolymers. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 95(7), 2169-2177.
Medri, V., Fabbri, S., Dedecek, J., Sobalik, Z., Tvaruzkova, Z., and Vaccari, A. (2010). Role of the morphology and the dehydroxylation of metakaolins on geopolymerization. Applied Clay Science, 50(4), 538-545.
Nelson, J. D., Chao, K. C., Overton, D. D., and Nelson, E. J. (2015). Foundation engineering for expansive soils. Hoboken: Wiley.
Petry, T. M., & Little, D. N. (2002). “Review of stabilization of clays and expansive soils in pavements and lightly loaded structures—history, practice, and future.” Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering. 14(6), 447-460.
Phummiphan, I., Horpibulsuk, S., Chinkulkijniwat, A., Sukmak, P., Arulrajah, A., and Shen, S. L. (2016). “Stabilisation of marginal lateritic soil using high calcium fly ash-based geopolymer”. Road Materials and Pavement Design. 17 (4): 877-891.
Scavuzzo, R. (1984). “Use of the Harvard Miniature Apparatus for obtaining moisture-unit weight relationships of soils”. GR-84-14. Engineering and Research Center. U.S. Department of the Interior: Bureau of Reclamation.
Van Jaarsveld, J. G. S., Van Deventer, J. S. J., and Lukey, G. C. (2002). The effect of composition and temperature on the properties of fly ash-and kaolinite-based geopolymers. Chemical Engineering Journal, 89(1-3), 63-73.
Wray, W.K. and Meyer, K.T. (2004). “Expansive clay soil a widespread and costly geohazard”. GeoStrata, ASCE GeoInstitute, 5(4), 4–25.
Zhang, M., Zhao, M., Zhang, G., Nowak, P., Coen, A., and Tao, M. 2015. “Calcium-free geopolymer as a stabilizer for sulfate-rich soils”. Applied Clay Science. 108, 199-207.
Zhang, Mo, Hong Guo, Tahar El-Korchi, Guoping Zhang, and Mingjiang Tao. 2013. “Experimental feasibility study of geopolymer as the next-generation soil stabilizer”. Construction and Building Materials. 47: 1468-1478.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2019: Soil Improvement (GSP 309)
Pages: 167 - 178
Editors: Christopher L. Meehan, Ph.D., University of Delaware, Sanjeev Kumar, Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Miguel A. Pando, Ph.D., University of North Carolina Charlotte, and Joseph T. Coe, Ph.D., Temple University
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8211-7
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Mar 21, 2019
Published in print: Mar 21, 2019
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Case studies
- Clays
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Environmental engineering
- Expansive soils
- Fine-grained soils
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Materials engineering
- Methodology (by type)
- Pollution
- Polymer
- Research methods (by type)
- Soil dynamics
- Soil mechanics
- Soil pollution
- Soil properties
- Soil stabilization
- Soil treatment
- Soils (by type)
- Synthetic materials
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.