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Transportation Geotechnics
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Article history: Many customary soil additives (e.g., cement, lime, fly ash and gypsum) are generally used to improve the
Received 22 December 2016 mechanical properties of the soils. The applicability of most of these traditional stabilizers of soil is lim-
Revised 17 March 2017 ited to particular soils. Moreover, traditionally stabilized soils in some cases exhibit high brittle behavior,
Accepted 7 August 2017
which is oftentimes inappropriate for projects such as airport runways and embankments of railroads.
Available online 19 August 2017
This article presents the results of a research study in which an alternative stabilizer -Lignosulfonate
(LS)- is investigated. Several basic properties of high plasticity clay, such as Atterberg limits, proctor
Keywords:
compaction, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), effect of cyclic wetting/drying on the strength
Lignosulfonate
Clay stabilization
properties, stress-strain behavior and secant modulus of elasticity (E50 ) are assessed. To clarify
Unconfined compressive strength the strength development due to the LS-treatment, scanning electron microscopy is performed on
Compaction properties LS-treated and untreated clay. The LS contents were 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2, 3 and 4% by weight of the dry soil
and specimens were cured for 0, 4, 7, 14, and 28 days. Results show that the LS-treatment leads to a
considerable reduction in plasticity index (PI) of the soil. Also, stabilization with LS has slightly increased
the optimum water content and slightly decreased the maximum dry unit weight of the soil. This
stabilization has increased the stiffness and UCS of the soil without leading to a considerable brittle
behavior. The increase in strength properties is ascribed to the electrostatic reaction that occurs between
the mixture of LS-water and soil particles.
2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction the soil and this affect the seismic stability of geotechnical projects
[15]. To show the effect of traditional admixtures on the brittleness
When the geotechnical engineering projects have to be built on of the soils, the results of some studies that have been conducted to
soft and low shear strength weak soils, problems related to bearing investigate the effects of chemical stabilization (gypsum and
capacity and settlement arise. Stabilization of soils is an economi- cement) on the mechanical properties of the soil including
cal and lasting method to achieve the desired geotechnical proper- peak/residual strength, stiffness and brittleness are summarized
ties. Chemical stabilization of the soil is a popular and effective in Table 1 [19,26,35,17,1]. As can be seen from Table 1, most of
technique that enhance the workability and shear strength of soil. the soils have become highly brittle after being stabilized with
Cement, lime, gypsum, slag, alum and fly ash are examples of traditional admixtures.
chemical additives that have been used effectively to improve Nowadays, an industrial by-product (Lignosulfonate) as a
the compressibility and strength characteristics of soil. In litera- preferable soil stabilizer increasingly used [15,16,2,32,37,
ture, numerous researches have been conducted on the mechanical 23,22,13,14]. This lignin-based chemical, lignosulfonate (LS) lead
properties of treated soil with traditional admixtures [25,24, to increase strength and durability of the soil. Additionally, its
11,10,28,20,33,21,27]. However, the use of this chemical stabilizers use does not harm the environment [15]. Annually more than 50
may cause damage to the environment, limits the growth of plants million tons of this agent is produced over the world [39]. Since
and alters groundwater quality [15,2]. In addition, soil stabilization LSs are byproducts of other processes, they are relatively cheap
with traditional stabilizers could cause a very brittle behavior in and can compete on a cost basis with any other stabilizers.
Moreover, in comparison with usual chemical admixtures, LS is
non-toxic, and soil stabilization with this agent does not increase
Corresponding author. brittleness of the host soil [23]. Vinod et al. [38] conducted a series
E-mail addresses: bahram.gonbadi@gmail.com (B. Tanegonbadi), rn0864@ of micro-chemical analysis on the LS-treated soil. Their results
gmail.com (R. Noorzad). revealed that the betterment of performance showed by the
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trgeo.2017.08.004
2214-3912/ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
46 B. Tanegonbadi, R. Noorzad / Transportation Geotechnics 12 (2017) 4555
Table 1
Summary of the effect of cement and gypsum stabilization on the behavior of soils reported in recent literature.
LS-stabilized soil could be ascribed to the decline of the double Experimental investigation
layer thickness by the neutralization of surface charges of the soil
particles and the following facilitation of a steady grain cluster. Materials
Alazigha et al. [2] to investigate the possible impressiveness of LS
in treating a remoulded expansive clay carried out a series of swel- Clay (CH)
ling and durability tests. They found that the optimum LS content The clay samples were collected from the suburbs of the Amol
for making more appropriate improvement on the swelling percent city, Iran. Fig. 1 shows the grain size distribution of the studied clay
is 2% of the soil dry weight. that was determined using sieve analysis and hydrometer test
Most of the past studies conducted on the LS treated soil, have according to ASTM D 422 [5].
mainly focused on the sandy silt, silty clay, low plasticity clay (CL) Based on the Atterberg limits tests results that were conducted
[15,16,32,37,13,14]. Few studies have been performed on high using ASTM D 4318 [6] test method, the liquid and plastic limits
plasticity clay [2]. Moreover, no study has been carried out to were approximately 55% and 26%, respectively. This soil was
investigate the shear strength behavior of LS-stabilized high plas- marked as high plasticity clay (CH) according to ASTM D 2487
ticity clays (CH). The main purpose of this research, was to evaluate [4]. The result of compaction test that was performed in accor-
the influence of various dosages of LS on the compaction properties dance with ASTM D 698 [7] revealed that the optimum water con-
and unconfined compression strength (UCS) of the high plasticity tent and the maximum dry unit weight of the soil were equal to
clay. Also, the effect of moisture content, aging and wetting and 21.25% and 16.3 kN/m3, respectively. Also the specific gravity
drying cycles on the strength properties of LS-treated and was 2.70 that was determined with the aid of ASTM D 854 [8].
untreated high plasticity clay was investigated. In addition, find-
ings of this study were complemented with the microstructural Lignosulfonate (LS)
analysis of the host soil before and after stabilization using scan- Lignosulfonates are made from the waste liquor byproducts of
ning electron microscope (SEM). the wood processing industries (such as paper mills). LS is a
Fig. 3. Picture of PVC chamber: (a) assembled chamber, (b) different parts of chamber.
Table 2 Table 3
Atterberg limits results of treated clayey soil. Standard compaction test results of treated clay soil.
Sample name Liquid limit (LL) Plastic limit (PL) Plasticity index (PI) Stabilizer Stabilizer Optimum moisture Maximum dry density
(%) (%) (%) dosage (%) content (%) (kN/m3)
Untreated clay 55 26 29 None 21.25 16.3
0.75% LS 39 25 14 LS 0.5 21.43 16.2
2% LS 41 26 15 LS 0.75 21.51 16.2
3% LS 43 26 17 LS 1 21.61 16.1
4% LS 44 26 18 LS 2 21.91 16.1
LS 3 22.15 16
LS 4 22.31 15.9
Fig. 6. UCS test results of treated soil with different percentage of LS for 28 days curing.
it can be concluded that the optimum LS percentage needed for at early ages when the neutralization of the negative charges on
this clay was almost 0.75. This irregular behavior that the maxi- the clay mineral surfaces and reduction in crystalline size of clay
mum axial stress decreases when the LS percentage exceeded minerals that causes formation of stable aggregations have fully
0.75, can be attributed to this factor that by increasing the LS con- started. It is clear from Fig. 7 that the increase of curing time have
tent the formed lignosulfonate polymer chains may be more than a positive effect on the UCS of LS-treated soils. In other words, the
to need to bind clay particles and these extra polymer chains create strength dependency on the curing time means that the stabiliza-
reciprocal repulsive forces between the charged parts of the tion processes of sorption, coating and latter aggregation of ingre-
admixture [2]. Moreover, visual observations indicated that, at dients by stabilizer agent under laboratory conditions are
constant moisture content, by increasing the LS content, the mix- dependent on time. So among these considered curing times,
ture becomes less compressible, which confirms the existence of 28 days curing, is selected as optimum curing time for LS-treated
mutual repulsive forces that responsible for the reduction in the specimens to perform the durability tests.
peak axial stress. Similar results were reported for sandy silt by Fig. 8 shows that the residual axial stress of treated clay
Chen and Indraratna [15]. remains without considerable change. Muttuvel [30] investigated
Fig. 7 shows that at early ages (0 day and 4 days), the UCS of the erosion rate of LS-stabilized silty sand and dispersive clay. Also
almost all LS-treated soils was less than that of the untreated soil he conducted a series of UCS tests on these samples in his study
when less formation of clusters was expected. However, at with LS dosages of 0 to 0.6 %. Based on the results that he has
the higher curing times (7, 14, and 28 days), the UCS of the reported, it was found that residual strength of slity sand was
LS-treated soils in different LS percentages was higher than that increased with increase of the LS dosage. On the other hand, for
50 B. Tanegonbadi, R. Noorzad / Transportation Geotechnics 12 (2017) 4555
IB qp qr =qp 1
Table 5
Unconfined compressive strength after wetting and drying.
Effect on microstructure
Fig. 14. Microscopic image of clay with 0.75% LS after 28 days curing with 4000 magnification.
54 B. Tanegonbadi, R. Noorzad / Transportation Geotechnics 12 (2017) 4555
[32] Puppala AJ, Hanchanloet S. Evaluation of a new chemical treatment method on Reza Noorzad was born in Amol, Iran in 1964. He
strength and resilient properties of a cohesive soil. Transportation Research received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in Civil engineering
Board; 1999: Paper No. 990389. and Geotechnical engineering from the Tehran Univer-
[33] Rao SM, Shivananda P. Compressibility behaviour of lime-stabilized clay. sity, Tehran, Iran, in 1990 and 1994 respectively, and
Geotech Geol Eng 2005;23(3):30919. the Ph.D. degree in Geotechnical engineering from the
[34] Rogers LE, Wright SG. The effects of wetting and drying on the long-term shear Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2000.
strength parameters for compacted Beaumont Clay. Transportation Planning He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department
Division: Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation; of Civil Engineering at the Babol Noshirvani University
1986. of Technology. From 2004 to 2007 he was the Head of
[35] Schnaid F, Prietto PD, Consoli NC. Characterization of cemented sand in triaxial
Central Library and Documentation Center of the
compression. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 2001;127(10):85768.
Mazandaran University. His research interests include
[36] Thompson MR. Lime-reactivity of Illinois soils. J Soil Mech Found Div ASCE
1966;92(5):6792. Soil improvement, Reinforced soil, Earth dams, Marine
[37] Tingle J, Santoni R. Stabilization of clay soils with nontraditional additives. Geotechnics, and Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering.
Transport Res Rec: J Transport Res Board 2003;1819:7284.
[38] Vinod JS, Indraratna B, Al Mahamud MA. Stabilization of an erodible soil using
a chemical admixture. Proc the ICE Ground Improve 2010;163(1):4351.
[39] Xiao B, Sun XF, Sun R. The chemical modification of lignins with succinic
anhydride in aqueous systems. Polym Degrad Stab 2001;71(2):22331.