Consolidation behavior of the expansive clay treated with cement and zeolite

Abstract

The expansive clays are extremely sensitive to the slight moisture alteration, exhibiting sequentially volume change. Uneven settlement of the buildings and infrastructures underlying expansive soil is a critical challenge that geotechnical engineers have to deal with. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the alteration in the compressibility behavior of expansive clay respecting partial replacement of cement by zeolite in cemented samples. For this purpose, 7 and 28 d cured samples treated with 6%, 8%, 10%, and 12% cement addition and 0, 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 90% cement replacement by zeolite were investigated through Atterberg limit and a series of one-dimensional consolidation tests to evaluate the consistency limits and compressibility alteration. The liquid limits of the soil samples indicated a decremental trend as the cement content rose. Afterward, the increase of zeolite replacement up to 30% in each specific cement content diminished liquid limit to its lowest value. Further increment of zeolite replacement increased the liquid limit of the soil-binder mixtures. The lowest plasticity index was also achieved at the 30% zeolite replacement percentage; hence, the lowest swelling potential would be resulted, concerning an indirect classification. The results of the consolidation experimentations disclosed that zeolite replacement had adverse influence on consolidation parameters of cemented samples such as compression index, swell index, coefficient of compressibility, coefficient of volume compressibility, and coefficient of consolidation after 7 d of curing whereas after 28 d of curing, the 30% zeolite-replaced samples represented the best consolidation parameters. Eventually, it can be stated that the addition of cement alongside the partial substitution of cement by zeolite can be a beneficial strategy for the geo-environmental targets of this study.

Keywords

expansive clays / cement / zeolite / consolidation / consistency limits

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