Green stabilized sulfate-rich dispersive soil through residues and industrial by-products

Abstract

Sulfate-rich dispersive soils became an enormous concern to infrastructure development. Owing to its characteristics, these type of soils are highly susceptible to erosions process, as well as, to expansive minerals growth when calcium based stabilizers are applied. Therefore, alternative binders must be found alternatively to ordinary Portland cement and lime. In this context, the present study aims to develop an alternative soil stabilizer, composed by ground glass (a byproduct from fiberglass production) and carbide lime (an industrial residue from acetylene gas production). To access the efficiency of the proposed stabilization, unconfined compressive strength was performed. Therefore, soil-ground glass-carbide lime blends were molded at distinct dosages, with ground glass, carbide lime, molding moisture content and dry unit weight being varied throughout the tests. Results has shown that both, residue and byproduct arise as an innovative approach to sulfate-rich dispersive soil treatment, where unconfined compressive strengths up to 4 MPa were reached. Additionally, regarding to statistical analysis, following this sequence, dry unit weight, ground glass amount and carbide lime content were statistical significant to a significance level of 5%. Whereas, molding moisture content was not a significant parameter. Finally, based on a non-linear regression, an experimental optimization was proposed aiming to obtain the maximum unconfined compressive strength requested.