Durability Assessment of Soil-Pozzolan-Lime Blends through Ultrasonic-Pulse Velocity Test
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32, Issue 8
Abstract
The improvement of soils that are not suitable for a particular purpose through techniques that combine densification and the incorporation of portland cement have been extensively done for decades in spite of the poor environmental performance related to such material. In this context, the development of alternative binders through the use of industrial byproducts may be an alternative to mitigate environment-related issues. Therefore, the current study aims to evaluate the performance of a gap-graded soil via incorporation of a binder composed of coal fly ash and hydrated lime. For this, strength, stiffness, and durability tests were carried out on compacted soil–coal fly ash–hydrated lime specimens molded at different porosities and with distinct coal fly ash and hydrated lime contents. Moreover, the stiffness of the specimens was also assessed during wetting-drying cycles. Results of all mechanical tests have shown the significant influence exerted by porosity, followed by the relatively minor impact of the amounts of binder (here composed of lime plus fly ash). Hence, good correlations between the response variables and the adjusted porosity/binder index () were obtained. Furthermore, an innovative approach to replacing the laborious durability test is proposed.
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Data Availability Statement
All data from laboratory tests (unconfined compressive strength, maximum shear modulus and accumulated loss of mass), and the fitting procedure model used during the study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their appreciation to FAPERGS/CNPq 12/2014–PRONEX (Grant 16/2551-0000469-2), MCT-CNPq (INCT, Universal & Produtividade em Pesquisa), and MEC-CAPES (PROEX) for their support of the research group.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32 • Issue 8 • August 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 28, 2019
Accepted: Feb 6, 2020
Published online: May 29, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 29, 2020
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