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Abstract: This paper presents experimental results obtained from tests conducted on remolded expansive soil specimens blended with
rice-husk ash 共RHA兲 and stabilized with lime and calcium chloride. The amounts of RHA, lime, and calcium chloride were varied from
0 to 16%, 0 to 5%, and 0 to 2%, respectively, by dry weight of the soil. The effect of additives on unconfined compressive strength 共UCS兲
and California bearing ratio 共CBR兲 is reported. It was found that the stress-strain behavior of expansive clay improved upon the addition
of up to 5% lime or up to 1% calcium chloride. A maximum improvement in failure stress of 225 and 328% was observed at 4% lime and
1% calcium chloride, respectively. A RHA content of 12% was found to be the optimum with regard to both UCS and CBR in the presence
of either lime or calcium chloride. An optimum content of 4% in the case of lime and 1% in the case of calcium chloride was observed
even in clay-RHA mixes.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲0899-1561共2008兲20:8共509兲
CE Database subject headings: Clays; Expansive soils; Lime; Ash; Chlorides; Material properties.
Introduction belled piers, drilled piers, friction piers, and moisture barriers
共Chen 1988兲, sand cushion technique 共Satyanarayana 1966兲,
Expansive soils are highly problematic because of their innate cohesive nonswelling 共CNS兲 layer technique 共Katti 1978兲, under-
potential for undergoing detrimental volume changes consequent reamed piles 共Sharma et al. 1978兲, and granular pile anchors
upon changes in moisture content 共McKeen 1988; Walsh et al. 共Phanikumar 1997; Phanikumar 2000; Phanikumar and Sharma
1993; Nevels 2001; Lu and Lykos 2004兲. Expansive soils swell or 2004兲 were suggested as a remedy for the problems posed by
increase in volume in monsoon seasons on imbibition of water, expansive soils. Apart from the special foundation techniques,
and shrink or reduce in volume because of evaporation of water stabilization of expansive soils with various additives such as
in dry seasons 共Chen 1988; Fredlund and Rahardjo 1993; Briaud lime, calcium chloride, and fly ash has also been a viable tech-
et al. 2003; Aubeny and Lytton 2004兲. Moreover, during monsoon nique for mitigating the volume change problems 共Rao 1984;
upon wetting, an expansive soil can swell or exhibit collapse Hunter 1988; Sankar 1989; Petry and Little 1992; Jyothi and
compression depending upon stress and suction history of the soil Sastry 1994; Kumar 1996; Rollings and Rollings 1996; Desai and
共Alonso et al. 1987; Gens and Alonso 1992; Sharma 1998; Oza 1997; Rollings et al. 1999; Phanikumar 2000; Cokca 2001;
Sharma and Wheeler 2000; Wheeler et al. 2003; Gallipoli et al. Phanikumar et al. 2001; Phanikumar and Sharma 2003; Acosta
2003兲. As a result of the alternate swelling and shrinkage of ex- et al. 2003; Hoyos et al. 2004; Phanikumar and Sharma 2004兲.
pansive soils, lightly loaded structures such as foundations, pave- Stabilization of expansive clays with various additives has also
ments, canal beds, and linings and residential buildings founded been one of the viable techniques for remedying the problems
in them are severely damaged 共Chen 1988兲. Gourley et al. 共1993兲 with expansive soils 共Hunter 1988; Petry and Little 1992; Roll-
estimated the annual cost of damage done to civil engineering ings et al. 1999; Acosta et al. 2003; Hoyos et al. 2004; Phaniku-
structures founded in expansive soils at $1000 million in the mar and Sharma 2004兲. Of the various additives used for
USA, £150 million in the UK, and many billions of pounds stabilizing expansive soils, lime 共Holtz 1969; Chen 1988; Rao
worldwide. 1984; Sankar 1989; Bhuyian et al. 1995; Evans 1998兲, fly ash
Many special and innovative foundation techniques such as 共Little 1997; Cokca 2001兲, and calcium chloride 共Desai and Oza
1997兲 have shown promise as they reduced the amount of heave
1
Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and improved the strength characteristics. Lambe and Kaplar
Louisiana State Univ., 3505 Patrick Taylor Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 共1971兲 and Lambe et al. 共1971兲 reported that frost heave also
共corresponding author兲. E-mail: rsharma@lsu.edu decreased with increasing lime content and fly ash content. Floc-
2
Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technol- culation, cation exchange, and pozzolanic action are responsible
ogy, Vellore, Tamilnadu 632014, India. for the amelioration of lime-soil mixes. The lime content required
3
Lecturer, Dept. of Architecture, Government Polytechnic for Women, to improve the physical properties of soils is called lime fixation
Kakinada 533 004, India. point, which varies between 3 to 10%, depending on the soil
Note. Associate Editor: Nemkumar Banthia. Discussion open until 共Thompson 1969a,b; Brandl 1981; McLaughlin 1984兲. The
January 1, 2009. Separate discussions must be submitted for individual
strength characteristics of lime-stabilized clays are measured by
papers. To extend the closing date by one month, a written request must
be filed with the ASCE Managing Editor. The manuscript for this paper means of unconfined compressive strength 共UCS兲 or California
was submitted for review and possible publication on June 2, 2004; ap- bearing ratio 共CBR兲 value. The increase in compressive strength
proved on September 24, 2007. This paper is part of the Journal of is due to an increase in cohesion and angle of internal friction of
Materials in Civil Engineering, Vol. 20, No. 8, August 1, 2008. ©ASCE, the lime-soil blend. Lime-soil blends were reported to have de-
ISSN 0899-1561/2008/8-509–515/$25.00. veloped substantial tensile strength also 共Thompson 1969a,b;
Shrinkage limit 10
Materials
Free swell index, FSI 共%兲 120
USCS classification of the soil CH Soil
Degree of expansion based on FSI High The index properties of the expansive soil used in this investiga-
tion are shown in Table 1. The soil can be classified as a CH soil
according to USCS. Based on the high FSI of the soil, it can be
classified as having “high” degree of expansion. Table 2 shows
Miller et al. 1970; Tulloch et al. 1970兲. The efficacy of CaCl2 as the chemical composition of the soil.
a stabilizing agent of expansive soils has been studied. CaCl2,
being a hygroscopic material, absorbs water from the atmosphere Lime
and prevents shrinkage cracks in expansive soils during sum- Hydrated lime was used in this investigation. It has 75–80% of
mer. Hence, it is preeminently suitable for stabilizing expansive calcium hydroxide and 7% silica.
soils 共Desai and Oza 1997兲. It was reported that the free swell
index 共FSI兲 decreased by about 80% and swell potential by about Calcium Chloride „CaCl2…
60% with the addition of 1% of CaCl2 共Phanikumar and Sastry The commercial grade calcium chloride used in this investigation
2001兲. contained 98% of CaCl2.
Rice-husk ash 共RHA兲 is obtained from the burning of rice
husk, which is the byproduct of rice milling. It was estimated that Rice-Husk Ash
1,000 kg of rice grain produced 200 kg of rice husk. On burning Well-burnt RHA passing through 425 m was used in this inves-
the rice husk, about 20% or 40 kg would become RHA 共Mehta tigation for convenient mixing with clay and compaction. The
1986兲. RHA contains a high amount of SiO2 in amorphous form size of the RHA particles was limited to 425 m as the light-
共Mehta 1986; Gambhir 1995兲, which makes it a pozzolanic ac- weight and highly porous RHA material with high external
cording to ASTM C 168 共ASTM 1997兲. Being a pozzolanic ma- surface area could lead to nonuniform mixing if particles finer
terial, RHA can be used in lime-pozzolana mixes and portland than 425 m were allowed in the blend. Table 3 shows the chemi-
cement replacement 共Payá et al. 2001兲. Pozzolana is a siliceous or cal composition of RHA. The chemical analysis was done using
siliceous and aluminous material by composition 共ASTM C 168兲 the X-ray fluorescence method. The RHA used showed high silica
共ASTM 1997兲, and has no cementing property by itself. However, content of 90%, which is an indication of a good pozzolanic
when pozzolana has high fineness, it can react with CaOH2 in the material.
presence of water to provide cementing property. Jaturapitakkul
and Roongreung 共2003兲 reported that RHA can be mixed with Tests Conducted
CaOH2 to produce a cementing material. RHA can effectively
stabilize expansive soils either solely or mixed with lime 共Basha Laboratory unconfined compressive strength 共UCC兲 and CBR
et al. 2003兲. tests were conducted in three different series. In the first series,
This paper presents the efficacy of using a waste material as an UCC and CBR tests were conducted on the untreated expansive
additive to expansive soil in the presence of chemical additives, soil. In the second series, UCC and CBR tests were conducted on
namely, lime and CaCl2. The effect of lime, CaCl2, and RHA on both clay-lime and clay-CaCl2 mixes to study the effect of lime
the UCS and CBR of an expansive soil is presented. The effect of and CaCl2 on the values of UCS and CBR of the expansive soil
lime and CaCl2 on UCS and CBR of RHA-soil mixes is also used. In the third series, UCC and CBR tests were conducted on
presented. RHA-clay-lime mixes and RHA-clay-CaCl2 mixes to study the
effect of RHA on the values of UCC and CBR of clay-lime mixes
and clay-CaCl2 mixes.
3 4 680 8.5
3 8 880 11.5
3 12 1,060 13.6
3 16 980 12.6
4 0 650 6
4 4 800 16
Fig. 1. Stress-strain behavior of clay-lime blends 4 8 1,000 21
4 12 1,180 23
4 16 1,060 20.5
• Lime: 0, 2, 3, 4, and 5%; 5 0 560 5.5
• RHA: 0, 4, 8, 12, and 16%; and 5 4 730 15.3
• CaCl2: 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2%. 5 8 930 20
The tests were conducted on samples prepared at various combi- 5 12 1,120 21.8
nations of the above variables. 5 16 1,010 19.5
Fig. 2. Effect of RHA on UCS of clay lime mixes Fig. 3. Influence of RHA on CBR of clay-lime blends
1 4 580 6.2
increased to 1.5% and 2% at all RHA contents. A RHA con-
1 8 750 7.92 tent of 12% was found to be the optimum with regard to
1 12 856 9.25 CBR irrespective of calcium chloride content.
1 16 706 8.75
1.5 0 50 2.5
1.5 4 90 3.7
References
1.5 8 160 5.2
1.5 12 224 6.55
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