Unconfined Compressive Strength Testing on Expansive Clay Soils Stabilized with Cement and Lime

Abstract

Soil stabilization offers an alternative solution to overcome the problem of expansive clay soil characteristics. Unconfined compressive strength tests were conducted on original and expansive clay soils containing cement and lime to investigate the effectiveness percentage of two pozzolan materials. The amount of material stabilization with percentages 2, 4, 7, 10 % cement, and 5% lime for each sample was adopted. The dimensions of the cylindrical sample were 3’’ in height and 3/2’’ in diameter. The relative density was 80% for all samples and sheared at a strain rate of 1 %. The properties of the original expansive clay soil are (w) 40.11%, (γd ) 1.3 gr/cm³, (Gs) 2.59, (LL) 60.05%, (PL) 38.16%, (IP) 21.88% and (qu) 0.61 kg/cm2. The test results indicate that the clay exhibits high plasticity. Based on the results, the effective combination percentage of two pozzolan materials to enhance the characteristics of expansive clay soil is 2% to 7 % cement and 5% lime. However, adding 10% cement and 5% lime causes the UCS value to decrease. The finding of this investigation shows the combination of two pozzolan materials, especially cement and lime, can effectively enhance the UCS values. This enhancement is observed at specific percentages of cement and lime addition. These results underscore the importance of carefully selecting proportions to achieve desired soil stabilization outcomes.

Keywords

• soil stabilization
• expansive soil
• ucs