Enhancement of resilient modulus of cohesive soil using an enzymatic preparation

Abstract

The current study aims to evaluate the dynamic response of stabilized cohesive soil using an enzymatic preparation in terms of resilient modulus. We ran a series of resilient modulus testing according to AASHTO T307 on three types of cohesive soil treated with an enzymatic preparation to investigate its potential on roads construction. The results show significant improvement in the resilient modulus values, estimated at 1.4 to 4.4 times that observed for the untreated soil. Because of the complexity in conducting the resilient modulus measurement, we did a regression analysis to produce reliable correlation formula to predict the resilient modulus for untreated and stabilised soil samples involving stress state. The resilient modulus values for the subgrade materials at the anticipated field stresses were determined using a universal model. The enzymatic preparation was applied in pavement of a sample road and evaluated using the plate load test. SEM analysis for soil samples shows improvement in the soil compaction via reduction of voids between soil particles. XRD analysis shows no major structural changes in the treated soils. The enzymatic preparation contains 43 mg/mL of proteins. We used the SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) technique to identify the main protein components; however, the presence of interfering materials (surfactants) hinders the separation.

Keywords

enzyme / resilient modulus / cyclic loading / regression analysis / plate load test

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