Soil Treatment with Organic Non-traditional Additives for the Reduction of Environmental Impact of Earthworks

摘要

Sustainable development principles lead earthworks companies to use all natural extracted materials on the construction site. Most of the time, these materials have to be improved, lime and cement being the traditional additives. In this context, the use of organic by products from various industries has been proposed. But the effects of these non-traditional additives on soil behaviour and stabilizing mechanisms are not well understood. The aim of this paper is to characterize the modification of compaction and bearing capacity of a low plastic soil(Plasticity index PI = 14)and to propose a stabilization mechanism. In this study, three non-traditional products were tested: an acid solution, an enzymatic solution and a calcium lignosulfo-nate powder. For the enzymatic, and lignosulfonate treatments, the experimental results showed an increase in the compaction ability of the selected soil with a reduction in optimum Proctor water content. These effects induced potential water and energy savings for the compaction of dry soils on a construction site. Regarding the stabilisation mechanisms, the obtained results showed that the effects of non-traditional products are mainly related to their surfactant features.