Investigation on Mechanical and Microstructure Properties of Silt Improved by Titanium Gypsum-Based Stabilizer

Abstract

Silt in the Yellow River alluvial plain is widely spread, but its uniform particle size and high roundness make it unsuitable as a subgrade filling material, while titanium gypsum (TG) is an industrial solid waste in Shandong Province, not only occupying land resources but also causing water and air pollution. In order to improve the engineering performance of silt, reduce the pollution of solid waste titanium gypsum to the environment and reduce the engineering cost, considering the engineering characteristics of titanium gypsum, it was combined in specific amounts with cement and lime to create a titanium gypsum-based stabilizer (TS) in this study. The effect of curing conditions and TS content on silt improvement was studied through laboratory experiments. The mechanical properties of the stabilized silt were investigated by unconfined compression test (UCT), and the mineral composition and pore structure were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) test, X-ray diffraction (XRD) test, and mercury injection pore (MIP) test. The test results show that TS could effectively improve the unconfined compressive strength of silt, and the strength of stabilized silt gradually increases with the curing period and TS content. In terms of the porosity, it decreases with the increase of the curing period and TS content. From the microstructure perspective, this is mainly due to the formation of ettringite and C-S-H during the stabilization of silt by TS.