Journal of Engineering Geology

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One of the most useful procedures in soil stabilization is lime. Soil improvement using lime is a quick and simple approach which could be included in large and small projects. The objective of soil ‘Improvement’ with quicklime is to achieve an immediate reaction, which significantly strengthens the soil due to the removal of moisture and a chemical change in clays. In order to do a parametric study on the influence of the lime on shear strength preparing the samples is important. In this paper, in addition to considering a method of samples preparation, the effect of lime content, water content and processing time on the shear strength of clay using direct shear test is investigated. The results indicate that the method of samples preparation is effective and is identified that there is an optimum lime and moisture content which maximize shear strength.

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The results of an ongoing FEM parametric study are presented regarding the dependence of the resulting piled raft behavior under lateral load and combination of loads on pile diameter, pile length, arrangement of piles and raft thickness. Taguchi method with Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to calculate the contribution ratio of these factors on the lateral displacement of piled raft. The obtained results of this study show that the pile diameter is an effective factor in horizontal deformation of the piled raft under pure horizontal load. However, in the case of load combinations, the pile length has the highest participation ratio in reducing the horizontal deformations.
 

 

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Introduction
Many studies have shown that the lime stabilization method can increase the strength and hardness of cohesive soils. Increasing these parameters is dependent on several factors such as curing time, lime content, clay minerals, soil particle size and moisture content.
When lime is added to moisture clay soils, a number of reactions occur to improve soil properties: 1- short-term and 2- long-term reactions. The short-term reactions include cation exchange, flocculate and carbonation; whereas, the long-term reactions include pozzolanic reactions. Since adding lime changes clay particles structure, it can change shear strength parameters.
Using geogrids as reinforcement in soil mass creates a composite system in which the soil tolerates compressive stresses. The elements of the reinforcement are also responsible for tensile stresses and interaction the reinforcement elements and soil increases the strength and ductility. The mechanism of stress transfer is based on interaction between soil and reinforcement. Accordingly, one of the most important issues in the analysis and design of reinforced soil structures is determination of frictional resistance parameters in soil-geogrid interface (adhesion and friction angle) which is discussed in this paper.
Stability and performances of reinforced earth structures significantly depend on the shear behavior of interface soil-geogrid in different weather conditions. Factors such as rainfall, seepage of groundwater and seasonal changes influence on soil moisture content. Changes in moisture content or soil dry density change interface soil-geogrid resistance. Increasing moisture content reduces the shear strength of reinforced soil and sometimes leads to large deformation or failure of system.
In this study, clayey soil with low plasticity (CL), hydrated lime for soil stabilization and two types of geogrid with different aperture size for reinforcing were used. In order to improve the brittle behavior of lime stabilized soils and to increase ductility of the samples, in the present study, lime stabilization and geogrid reinforcement was investigated, simultaneously. The interface shear strength parameters of treated soil with different lime content-geogrid and reinforcement coefficient were determined by direct shear tests. In addition, to study the effect of moisture content on interface shear strength soil-geogrid, all samples were subjected to shear in optimum and higher moisture content because the long-term performance of reinforced cohesive soils exposed to seasonal variations is evaluated.
Material and methods
The selected soil for the study is clayey soil from south region of Tehran, Iran. According to Unified Soil Classification System (USCS), the soil was classified as CL (clay of low plasticity).
In this study, three series of specimens were prepared and tested as follows:

• Stabilized samples with 0, 2, 4 and 6% lime for 7 days curing time
• Reinforced samples by geogrid (with and without transverse ribs of geogrid)
• Reinforced stabilized samples with different lime contents (0, 2, 4, 6 and 8%) by geogrid (with and without transverse ribs of geogrid) for 7 days curing times

To investigate the effects of bearing resistance provided by the transverse members of the geogrid and their contribution to the overall strength for reinforced soil sample, numerous tests were conducted with the geogrid without transverse members (all the samples had the same number of longitudinal members of the geogrid).
Direct shear tests were carried out on specimens based on ASTM D5321 at constant horizontal displacement rate of 1 mm/min.
Results and discussion
The results reveal that the shear strength of the stabilized soil increased and there are maximum values in an optimum lime content which is about 4%. Increasing lime content to an optimum lime content of clay caused the maximum changes in clay minerals because of cementitious and pozzolanic reactions and increases the strength of the clayey soil. Reduction of strength by adding lime to the soil more than the optimum content may be caused by the following reasons:
1. Stopping pozzolanic reactions because of finishing reactance during reaction
2. Making difficult the release of limewater (Ca OH ₂) in the cementitious context of soil.
Until SiO₂ and AL₂O₃ are not finished, pozzolanic reactions continue and produce cementitious product, thus the shear strength increases and improves the long-term performance of the stabilized soils.
Reinforced soil samples have higher shear strength relative to samples without reinforcement subjected to the same normal stress. This increase in shear strength is mainly attributed to the interlocking of soil particles that penetrate through geogrid apertures. In addition, geogrids restrain particles´ movement and thus increase the mobilized frictional resistance at particle contact points.
Increasing in lime content to 4% (optimum lime content in this study) has significant effect on the development of adhesion and then decreases gradually with increasing of lime content from 4 to 6%, while friction angles remain constant approximately.
Adhesion and friction angles decrease with increasing moisture content.
The results show that the reinforced stabilized specimen with 4% lime has the maximum value of reinforcement efficiency. The increase in moisture content can significantly reduce the reinforcement efficiency.
It is clearly observed that the reinforcement coefficient of reinforced stabilized sample by geogrid that has smaller aperture opening size (4Í4 mm) is higher than reinforced stabilized sample by another geogrid (10Í10 mm) in optimum and higher than optimum moisture content.
Conclusion
One hundred and twenty samples in 3 specimen categories including lime treated, reinforced and reinforced treated samples were prepared for the current study for 7 days curing time in optimum content and higher than optimum content. The main results can be concluded as:
The test results indicate that the shear strength of stabilized clayey samples increases after 7 days curing time due to pozzolanic reactions.
The results show that reinforced samples have higher shear strength relative to unreinforced samples.
Adhesion and friction angles and reinforcement efficiency decrease with increasing moisture content.
The reinforcement coefficient of reinforced stabilized sample by geogrid 1 that has smaller aperture opening size is higher than by geogrid 2. In general, interaction between particles and geogrid with smaller mesh size is stronger because of matching the size of soil particles and meshes../files/site1/files/123/8Extended_Abstract.pdf
 

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Introduction
Improving the geotechnical characteristics of soils including superficial or deep soils has always been a challenge to geotechnical engineers. Therefore, various physical and chemical methods are used to improve different types of soils. In general, any physical, chemical, biological or combination of methods are used to change the characteristics of natural soil mass in order to achieve engineering goals which is defined in the "soil stabilization." Among different types of additives for soil stabilization, the use of pozzolans has been investigated by researchers because of their chemical compatibility with the environment and the cementation products due to chemical reactions. Todays, a lot of researches has been done on the use of natural or artificial zeolites as pozzolanic materials for the production of cement mixtures. This material, as a pozzolan, increases the speed of the pozzolanic reactions and reduces the density of cement products. However, many studies have been done to investigate the effect of zeolite and sepiolite on the resistance of cement products such as concrete, but so far, the use of these additives has been less considered for soil improvement. On the other hand, because of the compatibility of zeolite and sepiolite with the environment and their unique physiochemical properties, it is necessary to pay attention to these additives in order to improve the soil. Therefore, in this research, the effect of zeolite and sepillot additives with different percentages at different treatment times have been investigated to determine the elasticity modulus and hydraulic conductivity with focus on soil microstructure behavior.
Materials and methods
1. The properties of the soils
In this research, two types of soil including clayey sand (with 20% clay) and sandy clay (with 51% of clay) were used. The studied soils were a mixture of clay and sand of Firoozkouh (a typical type of sand located in north of Iran). Some physiochemical properties of zeolite and sepiolite are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Physiochemical properties of zeolite and sepiolite used in this study

L.O.I.	Na2O	K2O	MgO	CaO	Fe2O3	Al2O3	SiO2		Chemical component
25.11	0.02	0.01	15.73	0.01	o.61	0.3	55.3		Sepiolite (%)S
11.94	0.13	-	0.87	2.45	1.26	13.54	69.74		Zeolite (%)

2. Experiments
The uniaxial compressive strength tests were performed at 0.1 mm/min according to ASTM D2166 standard. The stabilized soil samples were compacted at percentages of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 in cylindrical molds (38mm × 76mm) in five layers to achieve the desired density. In order to investigate the effect of curing time, the samples were placed inside sealed containers and underwent the test at instantaneous, 7, 14, and 28 days and at the desired additive percentages. To investigate the effect of additives on the soil hydraulic conductivity, clayey sand soil with additives 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% was prepared using dry mixing method. Then, the prepared mixture was poured from a specific height into the permeability mold with a height of 8.65 cm and diameter of 5 cm. In this way, the specific dry unit weight of all samples was obtained as 1.47 g/cm³, close to the minimum specific dry unit weight. In this research, concerning the considerable effect of fine-grained soils on hydraulic conductivity, falling head test was used to determine the permeability coefficient.
In order to the morphology of the clayey sand soil without additives and stabilized with additives 15% was examined through SEM test.
Discussion and results
1. Modulus of elasticity
In this study, after uniaxial tests in different percentages and ages, the stress-strain graphs were plotted and then the elasticity modulus was calculated. The results showed that, with increasing zeolite content, the modulus of elasticity has been increased and, with increasing curing time, except for a slight decrease, after 7 days, the modulus of elasticity increased. During the initial treatment (7 days), the hardness of the sandy clay soil decreased and then increased with increasing time. In general, hardness in both soils in the high percentages of zeolite is significantly is increased.
Also, the effect of sepiolite on the modulus of elasticity has been studied. The results indicate that with the increase in the percentage of additive and lengthening the curing time, the modulus of elasticity is increased. This increase in the stabilization of both sandy clay and clayey sand soil is almost the same. In addition, in the case of sepiolite modification, the elasticity of sandy clay and clayey sand is approximately equal to 5 times in comparison to the initial value of unstabilized soil. However, in zeolite, the modulus of elasticity in clayey sand soils is almost 2 times, and sandy clay is nearly 5 times higher.
2. Permeability
To investigate the effect of additives on the soil hydraulic conductivity, clayey sand soil with additives 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% was prepared using dry mixing method. The samples were saturated in a short period and permeability test was carried out immediately. Permeability coefficient changes were mostly influenced by physical factors. Therefore, due to the fineness of both types of additives, the hydraulic conductivity decreases with increasing additive content. The amount of reduced hydraulic conductivity in sepiolite stabilization is greater than zeolite due to the structure of the sepiolite (fiber-shaped) compared to zeolite.
 
 
3. SEM imaging
In this study, attempts were made to examine the reasons behind the obtained results more carefully through SEM imaging.

c                                     b                              a
Figure 1. SEM image of non-stabilized clayey sand soil (a) soil stabilized with zeolite 15% (b) soil stabilized with sepiolite 15% (c) during the curing time of 28 days at magnifications 10000X
Figure 1a displays the SEM image of non-stabilized clayey sand soil. As can be seen in the figure, the soil structure is clear as layered and clay scales can be seen as laminated. Figure 1b demonstrates the SEM images of clayey sand soil stabilized with zeolite 15% during the curing time of 28 days. The sample has lost its layered structure in response to stabilization with zeolite during the curing time and changed into an integrated structure. This can be due to incidence of chemical reactions such as ion exchange and pozzolanic reactions in response to adding zeolite. Figure 1c demonstrates the SEM images of clayey sand soil stabilized with sepiolite 15% during the curing time of 28 days. As shown in the figure, the sepiolite has a fibrous-shaped structure that is longitudinally twisted. Also, with  curing time increase, complex structures have emerged that could be due to the occurrence of chemical reactions.
Conclusion
This study examined the effect of zeolite and sepiolite additives on strength parameter of clayey soils. Accordingly, uniaxial compressive strength test was performed on clayey sand and sandy clay soil at percentages of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% of zeolite and sepiolite with instantaneous curing times of 7, 14 and 28 days. Further, permeability test was conducted at different percentages on stabilized clayey sand soil. Also, to investigate the effect of these materials on soil microstructure, SEM imaging was performed at 28 days. The results show that both additives increase the elastic modulus of clayey sand and sandy clay soils. Also, the results indicate a steady increase in the stiffness of the cured soil with sepiolite during processing time. However, reducing soil hardness can be seen in stabilizing with zeolite at lower rates and lower percentages. In permeability test, hydraulic conductivity decreases with increasing additive content. The rate of permeability reduction in sepiolite is higher than zeolite. SEM images show that chemical reactions create an integrated structure that ultimately increases uniaxial compressive strength and modulus of elasticity. Also, SEM imaging depicts physical changes along chemical reaction in soil stabilized with sepiolite. Ultimately, increasing soil strength resulting from additive alongside environmentally friendliness is recommended in superficial and deep improvement of soil../files/site1/files/144/Rajabi.pdf