Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11

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Construction and Building Materials

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Stabilization of expansive soil using cementing material from rice husk

ash and calcium carbide residue
Yuyi Liu a,b, Che-Way Chang b,⇑, Abdoullah Namdar a, Yuexin She a, Chen-Hua Lin b, Xiang Yuan a,
Qin Yang a
a
Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huaian 223001, China
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Chunghua University, Hsinchu 30012, Taiwan

h i g h l i g h t s

 A new cementing material combined with RHA and CCR has perfect mechanical properties.
 RHA-CCR is very beneficial to overcome expansion and cracking of expansive soil.
 Both UCS and shear strength have been greatly improved after stabilized by RHA-CCR.
 Stabilized mechanism are replacement, coagulation reaction and ion exchange.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In order to reduce geological disaster caused by expansive soil and utilize waste resources, a cementing
Received 12 December 2018 material combined with rice husk ash(RHA) obtained from biomass power plants and calcium carbide
Received in revised form 12 April 2019 residue(CCR) gained from acetylene plants, was used for stabilization of expansive soil. Based on com-
Accepted 25 May 2019
pressive and flexural strength of RHA-CCR mortars, mixing ratio of RHA/CCR was adopted as 65:35 by
weight for soil stabilization. Through a series of tests, the swelling-shrink and strength properties of sta-
bilized expansive soil have been investigated. With increase of binding content, curing time and initial
Keywords:
water content, swelling potential, swelling pressure, crack quantity and fineness of expansive soil low-
Expansive soil
Rice husk ash
ered remarkably. Meanwhile, unconfined compressive strength, cohesion and internal friction angle
Calcium carbide residue improved significantly after adding RHA-CCR. From the perspective of strength improvement, blending
Swelling-shrink content of 15% and initial water content of 1.2 times the optimum moisture content was recommended
Strength for stabilizing expansive soil. The mechanism of RHA-CCR to stabilize expansive soil involved replace-
Stabilized mechanism ment efficiency, coagulation reaction and ion exchange. In the future, stabilization of expansive soil using
RHA-CCR will be highly concerned because of excellent performance, lowered construction and disposal
costs, reduced environmental pollution.
Ó 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
Expansive soil, rich in hydrophilic mineral like montmorillonite
and illite, is a kind of clay soil formed in the natural geological pro-
cess. Expansive soil is characterized with expansion, shrinkage and
superconsolidability, which is significantly different from general
clay [1]. In China, about one-third of the country’s land is covered
with expansive soil. Due to the lack of suitable fillers, expansive
soil with moderate or weak swelling potential are often used as fil-
lers in the construction of building foundations, roadbeds, dams
and channel. However, when the water content increases expan-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ccw@chu.edu.tw (C.-W. Chang).
sive soil is prone to form expansion stress and expansion deforma-
tion, and when the water content decreases shrinkage stress and
crack often occur. These disadvantages of expansive soil often lead
to differential settlement of foundation, subgrade subsidence,
cracking of road surface and channel wall, leakage of dam. As a
result, expansive soil is well known as ‘‘hidden cancer” in geotech-
nical engineering [2]. In order to reduce the disasters caused by
expansive soil, there are many stabilized measures proposed for
expansive soil, generally involving soil replacement, humidity con-
trolling, chemical modification and special foundation systems [3].
Due to its effectiveness and adaptability, the chemical modification
method is favored by engineers. Traditionally, the chemical binders
in soil stabilization are lime, cement or a mixture of lime and
cement [4–6]. However the common binders are under discussion

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.05.157
0950-0618/Ó 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
2 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11

not only for their negative environmental effects but also for their
costs.
In recent years, scholars have tended to use various types of
solid wastes as improvers for expansive soil [7], such as fly ash
[8], blast furnace slag [9,10],cement kiln dust [11,12], alkali residue
[13,14] and so on. In China, there are two types of solid waste that
are abundant. One is rice husk ash (RHA) and the other is calcium
carbide residue (CCR), both of which can be used to stabilize
expansive soil.
Rice husk ash is resulting from burnt rice husk which is an
available agricultural by-product material. The physical and chem-
ical properties of RHA have been analyzed [15,16]. Chemically, RHA
consists of 82–95% silica under condition of controlling burning
temperature [17,18]. Recent researches, based on pozzolanic activ-
ity, have found that RHA was a potential material for expansive soil
improvement [19,20]. If RHA is combined with cementitious mate-
rials like lime, cement, waste cement, better results would been
achieved for stabilized expansive soil [21–26]. After adding rice
husk ash-lime/cement, swelling potential and swelling pressure
would decrease obviously, meanwhile mechanical properties(co-
hesion, internal friction angle, unconfined compressive strength,
CBR and bearing capacity) would increase drastically.
Calcium carbide residue is a by-product of acetylene produc-
tion, which contains mainly calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2. It was
expansion ratio and swelling potential were tested and listed in Table 1. Particle
size of expansive soil is shown in Fig. 1. The composition of various particles in
expansive soil is as follows: sand size 7.1%, silt size 42.7% and clay size 50.2%. It
indicates that the proportion of fine particles exceeds 90% and the expansive soil
is classified into CH clay with high plasticity. Any soil with PI >35% and swelling
potential >10% can be categorized as very high expansive soil [44], so expansive soil
in this paper has very high swelling potential.
The chemical composition of expansive soil was tested by polycrystalline X-ray
fluorescence spectrometer, as listed in Table 2. Its main components are SiO2 and
Al2O3. The scanning electron micrograph (with a magnification of 3000) of dry
expansive soil is shown in Fig. 2.
2.1.2. RHa
RHA studied in this paper was obtained from biomass power plants in Huai’an,
Jiangsu Province, China. The RHA is gray-black, indicating that carbon in the RHA is
not fully burned. Surface structure and morphology of the natural RHA are shown in
Fig. 3. There are a large number of holes inside RHA. These holes called honeycomb
holes have a scale between 5 and 10 lm.
The grinding of rice husk ash was carried out in vertical planetary ball mill. After
many groups of tries [45], the grinding time is choose as 5 min. After ground, the
sample is immediately filled in a sealed bag and stored. Microstructure and mor-
phology of ground RHA are shown in Fig. 4. It can be found that most of ground
RHA particles are less than 10 lm.
The specific surface area and particle size distribution of RHA were analyzed
using a laser particle size analyzer. The specific surface area is about 5910 cm2/g,
and particle size is shown in Fig. 5. The chemical composition of RHA was also
tested by XRF, as listed in Table 2. Its main components is SiO2 as same as most
of other RHA. However, the silicon content is lower than these RHA which are

confirmed that 64 g of calcium carbide (CaC2) provided 26 g of

acetylene gas (C2H2) and 74 g of CCR [27]. According to statistics,
the consume of CaC2 in China is 24.47 million tons in 2017, imply-
120
ing that 28.29 million tons of CCR is produced. Due to its high base,
CCR was hardly utilized and should be stacked up in disposal pools
100
as slurry. Theoretically, after dried, CCR can completely replace expansive soil
lime for unfavorable geological treatment. The basic physical,
Percentage passing (%)

80
mechanical and microscopic properties of stabilized soil with
CCR have been studied in past [28–32]. Furthermore CCR have
60
been applied successfully in subgrade engineering [33,34]. When
CCR is mixed with pozzolanic materials, such as fly ash, RHA,
40
bagasse ash, it can form a cementitious material similar to cement
[35–37]. Thence utilization of this cementitious materials to stabi-
20
lize soil is feasible, and strength, microstructure, chemical compo-
sition of stabilized soil have been investigated [38–43]. Previous
0
researches have focused on silty clay, soft soil, and lateritic soil.
However, until now, research using CCR and RHA to stabilize 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
expansive soil has not yet been reported.
Particle size (µm)
The paper aims to stabilize expansive soil by making use of
cementitious material combined with RHA from biomass power Fig. 1. Particle size of expansive soil.
plants and CCR from acetylene companies. The optimum mixing
ratio of RHA and CCR was determined based on mortar strength.
Swelling property, cracking characteristic, unconfined compression
strength and shear strength of stabilized expansive soil were stud- Table 2
ied through a series of experiments. At the same time, the influ- Composition of materials.

ences of blending content, curing time and initial water content Chemical composition Mass fraction/%
on effectiveness of using RHA-CCR to stabilize expansive soil were Expansive soil RHA CCR
investigated.
CaO 5.76 1.54 71.54
SiO2 58.71 72.34 5.73
2. Materials and methods Na2O 1.08 0.75 1.22
MgO 2.02 0.98 0.34
2.1. Materials Al2O3 18.44 4.43 3.82
Fe2O3 7.11 1.21 4.46
2.1.1. Expansive soil K2O 3.45 3.54 5.01
Expansive soil is collected from construction site in Jiangxi Province, China. LOI 3.43 15.21 2.33
Expansive soil is crushed into particles after air-dried and sieved with sieve size
#10 (2 mm). Specific gravity, limit moisture content, compaction characteristic, free LOI: Loss on Ignition.

Table 1
The physical properties of expansive soil.

Specific Liquid limit/ Plastic limit/ Plasticity Free swelling ratio/ Swelling Maximum dry density/ Optimum moisture
gravity % % index % potential/% g∙cm 3 content/%
2.61 77.6 36.9 40.7 132.0 26.21 1.47 28.0
 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11 3

120

100 RHA

Percentage passing (%)

80

60

40

20

0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000

Particle size (µm)
Fig. 2. Microstructure of the expansive soil (3000).
Fig. 5. Particle size of RHA.

produced by manual controlling temperature strictly. Loss on Ignition (LOI) is up to

15.21, indicating that the rice husk is not fully burned and the carbon content is rel-
atively high.
2.1.3. CCr
CCR was gained from acetylene company located in Huai’an, Jiangsu Province,
China. It was dried for 24 h at 105 °C, then grounded in planetary ball mill. The
specific surface area of CCR is 11310 cm2/g, and particle size is shown in Fig. 6.
Its particles are very fine and uniform. The microstructure of CCR is reflected by
SEM (7000) in Fig. 7. It is shown that a lot of flaky crystal structure appeared
on the surface of CCR, indicating that calcium hydroxide become calcium carbonate
after encountering air. The chemical composition of CCR is illustrated in Table 2,
and the main ingredient is CaO.
2.2. Experiment methods
2.2.1. Preparation of experimental materials
Expansive soil, RHA and CCR were dried, ground and sieved.

Fig. 3. Microstructure of the natural RHA. (a) RHA particle at low magnification (200); (b) RHA particle at magnification (4000).

Fig. 4. Microstructure of the ground RHA. (a) RHA particle at low magnification (6000); (b) RHA particle at magnification (24,000).
4 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11

120 The best ratio of RHA-CCR by weight will be obtained after comparing the
strength of five mortar samples.

100 CCR 2.2.3. Samples manufacture

First, RHA and CCR are mixed with optimum mixing ratio soil as cementing
Percentage passing (%)

80 material. Second, soil samples are blended with RHA-CCR. The blending content,
which is the dry mass ratio between RHA-CCR and expansive soil in this paper, is
60 designed as 0%,5%,10%,15%,20%. Third, water is added to act as a medium for poz-
zolanic reaction. In order to compare the effect of water content on the reaction,
three initial water contents were prepared. They are 1 times, 1.2 times and 1.4
40 times of the optimum moisture content (OMC), respectively. The mixture are stirred
with water, then placed in a sealed bag, stewing for 24 h. Fourth, samples are
20 pressed out by self-made sampler [46]. Fifth, soil samples will been cured at
20 °C and 90% humidity until 7,14, 28 and 90 days.

0
2.2.4. Testing of soil samples
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 In order to understand the effect of RHA-CCR on stabilized expansive soil, the
following experiments were carried out according to ‘‘Standard for Soil Test Meth-
Particle size (µm) od” (GBT 50123-1999, Chinese standard).

Fig. 6. Particle size of CCR. (1) swelling test, including swelling potential and swelling pressure.
(2) observation of crack development.
(3) unconfined compression test.
(4) direct shear test.

All of the tests were conducted in the Geotechnical Laboratory, Department of

Civil Engineering, Huaiyin Institute of Technology.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Compressive, flexural strength of RHA-CCR mortars

The pozzolanic reaction between RHA and CCR generates

hydrate cements, inducing hardening and strength development.
The compressive strength Rc and flexural strength Rf of RHA-CCR
mortars are important parameters indicating level of pozzolanic
reaction. Figs. 8 and 9 show effect of increasing RHA content in
the Rc and Rf at different curing time. As shown in the figures,

Fig. 7. Microstructure of CCR.

24

20 setting time
2.2.2. Mortar test of cementing material of RHA-CCR 7d
In order to obtain the optimum ratio of RHA-CCR, five proportions of samples 14d
were designed. Meanwhile, these samples are compared with cement (P
O 32.5)
16
28d
mortar in same curing time. According to ‘‘Method of Testing Cements-
90d
Rc /MPa

Determination of Strength”(GBT 17671-1999, Chinese standard), the ratio of

12
cementing material and standard sand is fixed at 1:3, then the mortar composition
in parts by weight are designed in Table 3. The ratio of water and cementing mate-
rial ratio (W/C) was kept at a constant of 0.7 in all mixtures. Superplasticizer was 8
applied to maintain the flow of mortar between 180 ± 5 mm since the mixture of
RHA-CCR mortars required more water to achieve the target flow.
The mortar strength test is performed according to the following arrangement. 4
(1) Weigh RHA and CCR according to the designed ratio and mix them. (2) Put RHA-
CCR and sand into stirring mill, and add a certain amount of water and superplas-
ticizer, then stir the mixture. (3) Load mortar into a mold with 40  40  160 mm. 0
(4)Vibrate mortar under vibration table and compacted. (5) After demolding, put 20:80 35:65 50:50 65:35 80:20
the mortar block in the curing chamber, which remained at 20 °C and 95% humid- Mixing ratio of RHA/CCR
ity.(6) Until 7,14,28 and 90 days, the compressive strength and flexural strength of
mortar blocks are tested at pressure testing machine. Fig. 8. Compressive strength of mortars with different ratio of RHA/CCR.

Table 3
Mortar composition in parts by weight.

Mortar type RHA/CCR RHA/g CCR/g Cement/g Sand/g

M0 — — — 450 1350
M1 20:80 90 360 — 1350
M2 35:65 157.5 292.5 — 1350
M3 50:50 225 225 — 1350
M4 65:35 292.5 157.5 — 1350
M5 80:20 360 90 — 1350
 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11 5

5 3.2. Swelling-shrink properties of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR

setting time The effects of RHA-CCR content on the swelling potential and
4 7d swelling pressure of stabilized expansive soil samples are pre-
14d sented in Figs. 10 and 11. There are several rules that can be found
28d as follows.
3
90d
Rf /MPa

(1) With increase in blending content, swelling potential and

2
1 increases from 0.0 to 20.0%. It is counted that reduction rate
0 Meanwhile, swelling pressure of uncured soil decreases
20:80 35:65 50:50 65:35 80:20
Mixing ratio of RHA/CCR
Fig. 9. Flexural strength of mortars with different ratio of RHA/CCR.
the mortar already has a certain strength after curing for 7 days,
demonstrating the pozzolanic reaction had already began for a
while. In addition, the results evidence that RHA significantly
increases the early strength of CCR mortars. Within 14 days, the
more RHA added, the higher the compressive and flexural strength.
On the other hand, effect of curing time on the mortar strength is
obvious. This phenomenon is especially noticeable when the
amount of RHA is more than 50%. It can be found that pozzolanic
reaction between RHA and CCR need a long period.
Table 4 indicates the variation in the compressive, flexural
strength of different blending content. The sample M4, including
65% RHA and 35% CCR, gave the highest compressive and flexural
strength in 28 and 90 days. It was also noted that the rate of
strength increase is higher at low-level of RHA mixing content.
For example, curing after 28 days, M3 (RHA/CCR = 50:50) mortar
is over 8.36 times in compression and 7.72 times in flexion than
M1 mortar, whereas M5 (RHA/CCR = 80:20) mortar is only 1.20
times in compression and 1.44 times in flexion than M3 mortar.
At the same time, strength comparison between cement mortar
and M4 sample (RHA/CCR = 65:35) is shown in Table 4. The com-
pressive strength of RHA-CCR mortar is about half that of cement
mortar, and flexural strength of RHA-CCR mortar is about one third
that of cement mortar. Although this cementitious material is not
as strong as cement, it is very suitable to treat some problematic
soils because it not only saves engineering cost, but also reduces
environmental pollution.
According to the above analysis, the mixing ratio of 65:35 (RHA/
CCR) can gain the best result. Therefore, in the subsequent stabi-
lization process of expansive soil, the ratio of RHA/CCR adopts
65:35.
swelling pressure of expansive soil go on decreasing gradu-
ally. For example, in Fig. 10(a), swelling potential of uncured
soil decreases from 26.21% to 15.65% when blending content
in swelling potential varies from 10.53% to 40.29% at differ-
ent percentage of RHA-CCR as compared to untreated soil.
from 422.1 kPa to 204.6 kPa when blending content
increases from 0.0 to 20.0% in Fig. 10(a). The reduction rate
in swelling pressure varies from 10.59% to 51.52% as com-
pared to natural soil. For uncured soil, it is very interesting
that both swelling potential and swelling pressure are lin-
early decreasing with blending content. Fitting through the
drawing and mathematical software Origin, the swelling
potential and blending content are approximated to the fol-
lowing linear function relationship based on different initial
water content: (a) w = OMC, y = 26.08–0.53x; (b)
w = 1.2OMC, y = 25.99–0.61x; (c) w = 1.4OMC, y = 25.16–
0.59x.
(2) As curing time increases, swelling potential and swelling
pressure of stabilized soil decreases accordingly. Giving an
example with w = 1.2OMC and blending content = 10%,when
curing time increases from 0 to 90 days ,swelling potential
decreases from 20.43% to 6.12% in Fig. 12, and swelling pres-
sure decreases from 275.6 kPa to 101.2 kPa in Fig. 13. It
should be noted that the daily reduction rate of swelling
potential is 0.37% in range of 0–28 days, and 0.06% in range
of 28–90 days. A trend can be obtained that in early stage of
curing period decrease is very fast, and slow relatively in
later stage. Off course, swelling pressure is also reflecting
this trend.
(3) The initial water content(w) of stabilized soil has obvious
effect on swelling performance. As shown in Figs. 12 and
13, as initial water content increases, both swelling potential
and swelling pressure decrease. This phenomenon exists in
both expansive soil that are cured or not. Giving an example
with curing time = 28 d and blending content = 10%, when
initial water content increases from 1.0OMC to 1.4OMC,
swelling potential decreases from 10.76% to 9.29% and swel-
ling pressure decreases from 154.6 kPa to 118.6 kPa. This
phenomenon has important reference significance for the
future deployment of expansive soil-RHA-CCR mixed
packing.

Table 4
Strength of RHA-CCR Mortars.

Mortar type RHA/CCR 7d 14 d 28 d 90 d

Rc/MPa Rf/MPa Rc/MPa Rf/MPa Rc/MPa Rf/MPa Rc/MPa Rf/MPa
M0 Cement 20.81 4.82 25.69 7.11 32.43 10.78 39.33 12.87
M1 20:80 0.34 0.11 1.03 0.21 1.25 0.34 1.93 0.65
M2 35:65 1.27 0.35 4.57 1.22 4.95 1.43 5.17 1.55
M3 50:50 2.31 0.44 7.95 2.37 10.32 2.98 15.01 3.62
M4 65:35 3.69 0.76 11.01 2.80 12.68 3.50 18.35 4.12
M5 80:20 5.20 1.70 11.42 3.10 12.34 3.54 14.62 3.86
6 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11

30 500
curing time 14d curing time
25 0d 28d 0d
400
7d 90d 7d

Swelling pressure (kPa)

Swelling potential (%)

14d
20
300 28d
90d
15
200
10

100
5

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Blending content (%) Blending content (%)

30 500
curing time 14d curing time
25 0d 28d
400 0d
7d 90d 7d
Swelling potential (%)

20 Swelling pressure (kPa) 14d

300 28d
15 90d

200
10

5 100

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Blending content (%) Blending content (%)

30
500
curing time 14d
25 0d 28d curing time
7d 90d 400 0d
7d
Swelling potential (%)

Swelling pressure (kPa)

20
14d
300 28d
15 90d

200
10

5 100

0
0 5 10 15 20 0
0 5 10 15 20
Blending content (%)
Blending content (%)

Fig. 10. Swelling potential of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR (a) w = OMC; (b)
Fig. 11. Swelling pressure of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR (a) w = OMC; (b)
w = 1.2OMC; (c) w = 1.4OMC.
w = 1.2OMC; (c) w = 1.4OMC.
 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11 7

24 (4) The effect of blending content on volume shrinkage of stabi-

lized expansive soil is presented in Fig. 14. With increase in
blending content, volume shrinkage of expansive soil
20
w=1.0OMC decrease obviously. Linear function, which is y = 17.57–
w=1.2OMC 0.54x, can been used to fit relationship between the volume
Swelling potential (%)

16 w=1.4OMC shrinkage and blending content.

In summary, RHA-CCR not only reduces expansion, but also

12
improves shrinkage performance.

8 3.3. Crack development of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR

Cracking is one of main characteristics of expansive soil. Shrink-

4
age and over-consolidation stress release can lead to cracks. The
occurrence and expansion of initial fissure not only destroys integ-
0 rity of soil, but also provides a channel for seepage of water, which
0 20 40 60 80 100 aggravates the expansion, contraction and development of fissures.
Curing time (d) After drying at 100 °C for 24 h, the cracks of expansive soil sample
with curing 28 days are illustrated in Fig. 15. Some phenomena can
Fig. 12. Swelling potential varied with curing time and initial water content
been found as follows. (1) blending content = 0%, there are more
(blending content = 10%).
than 30 obvious cracks and most of cracks are very coarse; (2)
blending content = 5%,there are more than 20 obvious cracks and
half of cracks are coarse; (3) blending content = 10%,there are
about 10 obvious cracks and little of cracks are coarse; (4) blending
350 content = 15%,there are more than 5 visible cracks and most of
cracks are thin; (5) blending content = 20%,there are less than 5
300 visible cracks and most of cracks are thin.
w=1.0OMC
In general, the more blending content, the less and finer the
w=1.2OMC
Swelling pressure (kPa)

250 crack, the better integrity of the sample. When blending content
w=1.4OMC
exceeds 15%, the coarse cracks are substantially eliminated. As a
200 result, RHA-CCR is beneficial to inhibit cracking of expansive soil.

150 3.4. Unconfined compression strength of expansive soil stabilized by

RHA-CCR
100
(1) The unconfined compressive strength(UCS) versus blending
50 content of RHA-CCR are described in Fig. 16 for curing times
of 0,7,14,28 and 90 days. As can be seen from the figures, for
0 uncured expansive soil, UCS increase with increasing
0 20 40 60 80 100 amount of RHA-CCR. The admixture of RHA-CCR play a good
Curing time (d) filling role because of their fine particles. The additive
changes the structure of soil particles and reduces plasticity.
Fig. 13. Swelling pressure varied with curing time and initial water content Therefore, the uncured expansive soil has an increased
(blending content = 10%).
strength as the RHA-CCR content increases. For example, in
Fig. 16(b), as RHA-CCR content increases, UCS increases from
0.82 to 1.36 MPa. The max increase rate in UCS up to 65.8%
as compared to the natural soil.
25 (2) Fig. 16 shows that strength of expansive soil have changed
obviously after curing. For most of cured samples, one of dis-
curing time=28days tinguishing features is that when blending content is up to
20
linear fit (y=17.57-0.54x) 15%, the strength reaches maximum. Meanwhile, as curing
Volume shrinkage (%)

time increases, UCS increases accordingly. For the sample

15 with 15% blending content after curing 28 days, the maxi-
mum strength is about 3.1 times that of uncured soil. Finally,
rate of strength increase is varying at different curing time.
10 The detailed variation of UCS with curing time is shown in
Fig. 17. For all cured samples, rate of strength increase is
high at early stage(within 28 days),but decreases at the later
5 stage.
(3) The initial water content(w) of stabilized soil has a remark-
able effect on UCS. Fig. 18 display UCS of stabilized soil with
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 three different water contents, 1.0OMC, 1.2 OMC, and 1.4
OMC respectively. In Fig. 18 (a), it can be seen that if cement-
Blending content(%)
ing material is not added, the larger the initial water content,
Fig. 14. Volume shrinkage of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR (w = 1.2OMC, the lower the strength. However, once cementing material is
curing time = 14 d). added, this law changes. Unlike unstabilized expansive soil,
8 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11
Fig. 15. Crack morphology of expansive soil with different blending content (curing time = 28 days).
the initial water content at 1.2 OWC provides highest
strength for the stabilized soil. This is because lower water
content is not enough for pozzolanic reaction. Fig. 18(b) also
reflects this phenomenon. When curing time is more than
7 days, UCS of 1.2 OWC is highest.
As a result, for expansive soil studied, the best compressive
results can be obtained with a blending content of 15% and initial
water content of 1.2 OWC.
3.5. Shear strength of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR
The shear strength parameters such as cohesion and internal
friction angle were obtained from direct shear test. The roles of
curing time for different blending content on strength develop-
ment is illustrated in Fig. 19. The addition of RHA-CCR tends to
increase cohesion of soil. For uncured soil, cohesion increase from
49.8 kPa to 68.2 kPa when blending content is increased from 0.0
to 20.0%. After cured, cohesion is significantly improved. Interest-
ingly, when blending content is 15%, cohesion reaches maximum.
For instance, cohesion with blending content of 15% after curing
28 days is 2.45 times that of uncured soil.
The effect of blending content on internal friction angle is
provided in Fig. 20. With increase of blending content, internal fric-
tion angle of stabilized expansive soil increase from 7.0° to 13.0°.
As same as cohesion, internal friction angle is significantly
improved after cured. For instance, internal friction angle with
blending content of 15% after curing 90 days is 2.43 times that of
uncured soil.
By comparing Figs. 19 with 20, it can be found that when the
blending amount is 15%, the cohesion reaches a maximum value,
but when the blending amount is 20%, the internal friction angle
is maximized. This phenomenon can be explained as follows. If
Ca(OH)2 in CCR exceeds the amount required for chemical reaction,
free lime will appear. But this free lime does not contribute to
adhesion improvement. This rule is consistent with research
results of Vichan Songsuda [43]. However, since both CCR and
RHA are powder particles, it is known from the basic properties
of the soil that the more the particles, the greater the frictional
strength. Therefore, the more the CCR-RHA is added, the larger
the internal friction angle.
To sum up, addition of RHA-CCR has obviously upgraded shear
properties of expansive soil, which is beneficial to bearing proper-
ties of soil.
3.6. Stabilized mechanism of RHA-CCR
Ingles has conducted an in-depth analysis of the mechanism of
lime-stabilized soil [47]. Referring to his theory, the mechanism of
stabilized by RHA-CCR is as follows.
3.6.1. Replacement
Added to expansive soil, RHA and CCR played a certain degree of
replacement effect. Physical propertie s of expansive soil will
change after mixed with RHA-CCR. First, both RHA and CCR are
powder particles, and the addition of RHA-CCR reduces the propor-
tion of clay particals in the expansive soil. Second, because of the
low plasticity of RHA and CCR, adding RHA and CCR will corre-
spondingly reduce liquid limit and plasticity index of expansive
soil. Third, due to lack of montmorillonite and illite, RHA and
CCR are non-expansion material, they can lower the expansion
and contraction of expansive soil. In addition, particles of CCR are
very fine, they can also have a good filling effect in soil particles.
As a result, replacement efficiency is more and more obvious with
increase of RHA-CCR content.
3.6.2. Coagulation reaction
Since RHA contains a large amount of active silica, it is an ideal
pozzolanic material. It is well known that CCR reacts with poz-
zolanic componentto form calcium-silicate cement. In this study,
hydrated calcium silicate (CaO
SiO2
nH2O) and hydrated calcium
aluminate (CaO
Al2O3
mH2O) can be generated with Ca(OH)2 from
CCR and SiO2,Al2O3 from RHA and expansive soil under the water
environment. The chemical product is ideal cementitious material
and water insoluble. The silicate gel proceeds immediately to coat
and bind clay lumps in the soil and to block off the soil voids. Along
with these cementitious materials gradually transforming from gel
state to crystalline state, the particle of expansive soil are joined
together and consolidated. In time, this gel gradually crystallizes
into well-defined calcium silicate hydrates such as tobermorite
and hillebrandite. The micro-crystals can also mechanically inter-
lock. As a result, when the soil is cured for some times, strength
increases and swelling potential decreases.
3.6.3. Ion exchange
Expansion and shrinkage of expansive soil is mainly due to
water absorption of expansive mineral in soil. Once absorbing
water, the thickness of water film will change. The thinner the
thickness, the greater the cohesive force between the particles,
the higher the shear strength of the soil, the smaller the swell-
shrinking property. After added to the expansive soil and assisted
by water, CCR is dissociated into Ca2+ and OH ions. Ca2+ is
replaced by Na+ and K+ in the clay particles by ion exchange, so that
the colloidal adsorption layer is thinned. As a result, the thickness
of water film becomes thinner and the swelling potential of the soil
reduces. In addition, alkaline environment accelerates ion
exchange. As CCR is one kind of alkali, the pH value of expansive
soil increases with the addition of CCR. Generally speaking, the
more CCR, the more ion exchange.
3.7. Stabilized effect comparised with other researches
As mentioned above, there have been some findings on the sta-
bilization of expansive soil using various types of solid wastes,
such as fly ash, blast furnace slag, cement kiln dust, alkali residue
and so on.
To this end, the engineering properties of stabilized expansive
soil with different solid waste material were compared, as shown
 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11 9

5
5 Blending content
Curing time
0% 15%
0d 5% 20%
4
7d 4
10%
14d

UCS (MPa)
3 28d 3
UCS (MPa)

90d

2 2

1
1

0
0 0 20 40 60 80 100
0 5 10 15 20 Curing time (d)
Blending content (%)
Fig. 17. UCS of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR in different curing time
(w = 1.2OMC).

5
5
Curing time
4 0d
7d 4 Water content
14d 1.0OMC
3 28d 1.2OMC
UCS (MPa)

90d 3 1.4OMC
UCS (MPa)

2
2

1
1

0
0 5 10 15 20 0
0 5 10 15 20
Blending content (%)
Blending content (%)

5 5
Curing time
4 0d 4
7d
14d
3 28d 3
UCS (MPa)

UCS (MPa)

90d
Water content
2 2 1.0OMC
1.2OMC
1.4OMC
1 1

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Blending content (%) Curing time (d)

Fig. 16. UCS of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR (a) w = OMC; (b) w = 1.2OMC; Fig. 18. UCS of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR in different water content (a)
(c) w = 1.4OMC. effect of blending content (w = 1.2OMC); (b) effect of curing time (Blending
content = 15%).
10 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11

250 cause environmental pollution, it needs to be carefully considered

when using.
curing time Therefore, when these solid wastes are used as stabilization
200 0d agents, RHA-CCR is the most suitable one for expansive soil stabi-
7d lization considering aspects of reinforcement performance, cost
14d and environmental protection.
150 28d
90d
c(kPa)

100 4. Conclusions

Based on above experimental investigation and result analysis,

50 the following conclusions can be achieved:

(1) RHA obtained from biomass power plants, in combination

0
0 5 10 15 20
Blending content (%)
Fig. 19. Cohesion of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR (w = 1.2OMC).
Fig. 20. Internal friction angle of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR
(w = 1.2OMC).
in Table 5. Because the analysis angles of each article are different,
stabilization effect were compared only from two aspects of
strength and swelling potential. It can be seen that strength
improvement of expansive soil stabilized by RHA-CCR is better
than other methods. At the same time, the effect of reducing swel-
ling property of expansive soil is also very effective.
Currently in China, it takes a certain amount of money to buy fly
ash, blast furnace slag, cement kiln dust, but alkali residue, RHA
and CCR are available free of charge. However, alkali residue will
with CCR can form cementing material. Compressive
strength of RHA-CCR mortar is about half that of P.O 32.5
cement mortar, and flexural strength of RHA-CCR mortar is
about one-third. Compared with different mixing ratio of
RHA/CCR, 65:35 can obtain best performance in strength
and is adopted to stabilize expansive soil with very high
swelling potential.
(2) Swelling potential and swelling pressure of stabilized soil
decreases with increase in blending content, curing time
and initial water content. At the same time, the more RHA-
CCR content, the less and the finer the crack, the better the
integrity of sample. When blending content exceeds 10%,
coarse cracks are substantially eliminated. RHA-CCR is very
beneficial to overcome expansion and cracking weakness
of expansive soil.
(3) Unconfined compressive strength of expansive soil raise
rapidly when treated with the admixture of CCR and RHA.
As curing time increase, strength of treated soil increase
accordingly. The initial water content of stabilized soil has
an important effect on unconfined compressive strength.
Cohesion and internal friction angle of stabilized soil pro-
mote greatly due to the cementation of RHA-CCR. Both
UCS and shear strength of stabilized expansive soil reach
the maximum value when blending content is 15% and ini-
tial water content is 1.2OMC.
(4) The stabilized mechanism of RHA-CCR to improve expansive
soil are replacement efficiency of RHA-CCR, coagulation
reaction and ion exchange.
(5) The experiment results have proved feasibility and effective-
ness of this cementing material. In future, because of excel-
lent performance, lowered construction and disposal costs,
reduced environmental pollution, expansive soil stabilized
by RHA-CCR will be more and more concerned by engineers
and technicians. As an ideal backfill material, expansive soil
stabilized by RHA-CCR can get a wide range of application in
construction of building cushion, subgrade of road and rail-
way, airfield foundation, dam filler and other earthworks.

Table 5
Result comparison with existing literature.

[8] [9] [11] [12] [13,14] This paper

Stabilization material Fly ash Blast furnace slag Cement kiln dust Cement kiln dust Alkali residue RHA + CCR
Blending ratio 0–50% 10–90% 0–10% 0–10% 0–50% 0–20%
Optimum blending ratio 20% 40% 10% 8% 20% 15% (RHA:CCR = 65:35)
Ratio of UCS after and before stabilization 1.05 1.97 (28 d) 1.29 (28 d) 1.58 (7 d) 2.08 (28 d) 2.71 (28 d)
Ratio of swelling potential after 0.89 0.20 0.26
and before stabilization
 Y. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 221 (2019) 1–11
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (grant number 51708245), the National Students’
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program of China (grant
number 201811049017z) and the Science and Technology Founda-
tion of Construction in Jiangsu Province (grant number
2017ZD130). The authors also would like to thank Chunghua
University and Huaiyin Institute of Technology for all sorts of
supports.
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