Stabilization of Expansive Clays: A Micro-mechanistic Study

Stabilization of expansive clays is well known in practice worldwide. However, an additive and appropriate dosage is needed to understand blended clays' chemical and micro-structural behavior. Moreover, in current practice, most studies rely on blended clays' index and engineering properties even though the swell-shrink behavior of expansive clays chiefly depends on chemical constituents. Such exposition of selection of additives has chances of improper estimation of quantity. This paper presents the experimental investigation of index properties of soils by varying additives and their contents. The index properties were significantly improved with increasing additive content in the clays. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) were carried out to assess the long-term strength development. SEM and EDS micrographs revealed the potential role of the chemical composition in the strength development in chemically altered expansive clays. This study provides in-depth aspects of the role of chemical constituents indeed imperative to deciding the optimum dosage of chemical additives in the expansive clay blends. Further, this could be helpful to avoid over/under estimation of chemical dosage and economize project costs.