Laboratory modelling of strength and deformation characteristics of a high swelling soil treated with industrial wastes

摘要

Presence of swelling soils in the foundations may cause excessive damage to the buildings, pavements and other lightweight structures due to its differential volume changes with the moisture. On the other hand, some of the massively generated industrial wastes offer engineering characteristics, which may be utilized with a twofold benefit of cleaned environment and soil stabilization. In this study, silica fumes and scrap rubber powder from local industry have been mixed with a highly expansive soil in different proportions to improve its strength and deformation characteristics. Furthermore, scanning electron microscope images were studied to understand the effects of additives on the stabilization mechanism of the expansive soils. The analyses of results confirmed that these industrial wastes could markedly improve the undrained shear strength and sufficiently decrease the swelling characteristics of tested soil. A set of empirical correlations have also been proposed to predict both swell potential and pressure that could be subsequently verified through additional experimental data obtained from additional published studies. In essence, the proposed empirical correlations could predict the behaviour of the tested additional data with a standard error of mean well within +/- 10% that may be suitable for preliminary assessments of most practical sites.