Residue from coal combustion for plastic soil improvement

The combustion of coal in Hoffman-type furnaces generates ash as one of the process residues. This research seeks to make use of this residue to improve plastic subgrade soils in tertiary roads, considering that in Colombia a large percentage of these are not paved. A soil with high plasticity has been selected to make mixtures with ash dosages that vary from 0% to 15% with respect to the dry weight of the soil. To determine the variation of the physical and mechanical properties of the soil-ash mixtures tests of consistency limits, compaction tests, and California bearing ratio were carried out. The results showed that the mixture in which 12% of the coal combustion residue is added to the soil, as a percentage for the dry weight of the soil, has a better physical behavior and bearing capacity than the soil in its natural state. obtaining an increase of up to 75% in the California bearing ratio.

Soil genetics in its complex stabilization

The problem of the inter-repair time of automobile roads in Russia can be solved by the reinforcing the subgrade soils with cement. Soil is a multicomponent system affecting the deformation and strength properties of the composition (cement and soil). The cement-soil composition has drawbacks, especially in seasonal freezing regions, which affects its durability.In order to increase the composition efficiency, the Nicoflok polymer-mineral additive is used to strengthen subgrade with cement. However, the influence of the type regional and genetic soil on strength properties of the cement-soil + Nicoflok composition is yet studied.The paper presents the factor analysis of the influence of soil genetics on the composition strength properties. The study of the multicomponent system includes the response surface of the soil genetics on the strength properties of the composition. Additional studies are required to move from the qualitative evaluation of the soil genetics on the composition (cement-soil + Nicoflok) to the quantitative evaluation. These studies must be carried out according to a single scheme, which regards the seasonal freezing of subgrade soils in the northern regions of European Russia and West Siberia.

Influence of Humidity State on Dynamic Resilient Modulus of Subgrade Soils: Considering Repeated Wetting-Drying Cycles

The service performance of subgrade depends on the dynamic resilient modulus (MR) of subgrade soils. Meanwhile, due to complicated conditions such as rainfall infiltration, high temperature evaporation, and groundwater level fluctuations, it can be safely said that the humidity state and repeated wetting-drying (WD) cycles affect the MR of subgrade soils. The object of this study is to conduct a series of dynamic triaxial tests after WD cycles to investigate the characteristics of the MR under various factors. The main results are as follows: (i) the MR decreased with the increase of deviator stress and rose with the growth of confining pressure; (ii) the humidification effect caused by the increase in moisture content attenuated the MR; (iii) the accumulation of WD cycles damaged the MR; however the decline rate was gradually retarded until it was stable with WD cycles 5 times; (iv) the satisfactory prediction model for the MR of subgrade soils considering WD cycles was proposed and verified. It is expected that the findings can provide valuable contributions for road engineering.

An Eco-Sustainable Stabilization of Clayey Road Subgrades by Lignin Treatment: An Overview and a Comparative Experimental Investigation

Subgrade conditions significantly affect functionality of the road pavement during its service life. Among the different stabilization techniques for upgrading poorly performing in-situ soil subgrades, an economically attractive example involves the use of waste materials, such as lignin. A deep bibliographic analysis of previous studies is carried out in the first section of this paper. The literature review suggests that use of lignin as a stabilizing agent of road subgrade soils is not completely consolidated. In addition, this study reports an investigation on the strength and performance characteristics of a lignin-treated clayey soil. Several experimental tests were carried out on both the untreated and lignin-treated soils in order to shed some light on different aspects with limited knowledge available, such as the behaviour of the stabilised soil in specific conditions (e.g., the presence of water). Finally, the test results are discussed and compared with those obtained when the same soil is treated with lime, which is more widely used. The most relevant finding is the poor ability of lignin to upgrade the bearing capacity of the soil in wet conditions compared to lime; on the contrary, the presence of lignin helped in controlling the swelling potential of this type of soil.

Response analysis of subgrade soils using signal phase shift obtained from laboratory lightweight deflectometer tests

Over the past decades, the use of fast and reliable measurement techniques of soil mechanical properties has gained popularity. The lightweight deflectometer (LWD) is among the tools developed that can allow one to determine the elastic modulus of soil. Viscosity response components in pavement or soil typically induce phase shifts between stress and strain peaks, which can be translated to phase angle. Subgrade soil may exhibit varying response types depending on its nature and characteristics. Using large laboratory subgrade samples, an experiment was designed to measure the elastic modulus and phase angle with an LWD in different stress and humidity conditions. A model associating the elastic modulus inferred from LWD tests with parameters describing stress, water content and soil properties was proposed. This model is fundamentally inferred from the relationship between elastic modulus and phase shift, and was used to assess the relative contribution of varying conditions on soil stiffness.

The statistical sensitivity of highway project cost to geo-heterogeneity in the tropics

PurposeThe study is carried out to analytically reconnoiter geotechnical index properties of subgrade soils as key variables that shape the cost profile of road infrastructure projects in a tropical geographic setting with starkly heterogenous ground conditions.Design/methodology/approachUsing the Niger Delta region, as a point of reference, data on geotechnical index properties of subgrade soils at spatially dispersed locations for 61 completed highway projects are collated. Exploratory statistical tests were carried out to infer significant associations with final project costs before regression analysis. Regression analysis is principally deployed as an explanatory analytical tool, relevant to quantify the sensitivity of highway project costs to the individual and collective impact of geotechnical variables.FindingsSeveral parameters of expansivity and compressibility exhibited significantly strong associations with the final costs recorded on the highway projects. The statistical analysis further established a cause-effect relationship, whereby small changes in the geotechnical properties of sub-grade soils at project locations, would result in disproportionately large changes in the cost of road construction.Practical implicationsThe study findings provide insight into the sensitivity of road construction costs to geotechnical variables, which can serve as a useful input in financial risk analysis for development appraisal and the generation of location adjustment factors.Originality/valueThe study statistically demonstrates location-induced construction cost profiles, triggered in response to the spatial geotechnical variability and occurrence of problem subgrade soils in the humid tropics, which may be different from those traditionally established in studies of cold and temperate climate soils.

An Improved Mechanistic-Empirical Creep Model for Unsaturated Soft and Stabilized Soils

Soft soils are usually treated to mitigate their engineering problems, such as excessive deformation, and stabilization is one of most popular treatments. Although there are many creep models to characterize the deformation behaviors of soil, there still exist demands for a balance between model accuracy and practical application. Therefore, this paper aims at developing a Mechanistic-Empirical creep model (MEC) for unsaturated soft and stabilized soils. The model considers the stress dependence and incorporates moisture sensitivity using matric suction and shear strength parameters. This formulation is intended to predict the soil creep deformation under arbitrary water content and arbitrary stress conditions. The results show that the MEC model is in good agreement with the experimental data with very high R-squared values. In addition, the model is compared with the other classical creep models for unsaturated soils. While the classical creep models require a different set of parameters when the water content is changed, the MEC model only needs one set of parameters for different stress levels and moisture conditions, which provides significant facilitation for implementation. Finally, a finite element simulation analysis of subgrade soil foundation is performed for different loading levels and moisture conditions. The MEC model is utilized to predict the creep behavior of subgrade soils. Under the same load and moisture level, the deformation of soft soil is largest, followed by lime soil and RHA–lime-stabilized soil, respectively.