Predicting the Compactability of Artificially Cemented Fine-Grained Soils Blended with Waste-Tire-Derived Aggregates

Abstract

This study investigates the possibility of extending the specific gravity ratio (SGR) modeling framework, originally developed for predicting the compaction properties of unamended fine-grained soils (with no binder) blended with tirederived aggregates (TDAs), to artificially cemented soil-TDA blends. This was achieved by performing comprehensive statistical analyses on a large and diverse database of 87 fine-grained soil-binder-TDA compaction tests, covering a wide range of soil plasticity and including a variety of chemical binders (cement, lime, fly ash, slag, and liquid polymers) and sand-sized (0.075-4.75 mm) TDA products. The optimum water content (OWC) and maximum dry unit weight (MDD) for any fine-grained soil-binder-TDA blend (constant binder type and content) can be expressed as functions of the OWC and MDD measured for the soilbinder mixture (with no TDA), along with the soil-binder (SB) to soil-binder-TDA (SBT) SGR, as w SBT opt = w SB opt (SGR) M and SBT dmax = SB dmax (SGR) D , respectively. It was demonstrated that reliable predictions (across different fine-grained soils, binders, TDA particle sizes/shapes, and compaction energy levels) can be achieved by adopting the same unique reduction rate parameters of β M = − 0.967 and β D = − 0.509 used for non-cemented soil-TDA mixtures. Attempts were also made to identify causal links between these reduction rate parameters and basic soil properties. It was shown that β D can be expressed as a linear-log function of soil activity. The 95% lower and upper (water content) agreement limits between the predicted and measured OWC values were obtained as − 1.70% and + 2.01%, both of which can be deemed acceptable for practical applications (e.g., preliminary soil-binder-TDA mixture-design evaluations). For the MDD predictions employing soil activity, these agreement limits were calculated as − 0.50 and + 0.54 kN/m 3 ; these small MDD limits are also deemed acceptable for practical applications. Extended author information available on the last page of the article Keywords Artificially cemented fine-grained soil • Tire-derived aggregate • Compaction • Optimum water content • Maximum dry unit weight • Specific gravity ratio • Soil activity Abbreviations AS Australian Standard ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials BA Bland-Altman (plot/method) BS British Standard CE Clay with extremely high plasticity CEL Compaction energy level CH Clay with high plasticity CI Clay with intermediate plasticity CL Clay with low plasticity CV Clay with very high plasticity FA C Class C fly ash GGBFS Ground-granulated blast-furnace slag HL Hydrated lime MDD Maximum dry unit weight ME Silt with extremely high plasticity MH Silt with high plasticity MI Silt with intermediate plasticity ML Silt with low plasticity MP Modified Proctor (compaction) MV Silt with very high plasticity OPC Ordinary Portland cement OWC Optimum water content PAM Polyacrylamide (i.e., an anionic synthetic polymer) PC II Portland cement type II S Soil (fine-grained) SA Sodium alginate (i.e., an anionic...

Comment on “A new approach to stabilization of calcareous dune sand” [Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 19, 3581–3592 (2022)]

“…In geotechnical engineering applications, waste-tire-derived aggregates (TDAs), including GR, have merits as alternatives or partial replacements for natural soils and aggregates; for instance (i) as additives for the stabilization of expansive soils, (ii) for construction of highway embankments and pavements, (iii) as lightweight backfills to bridge abutments and retaining walls, (iv) for improving the liquefaction resistance of silty sand (e.g., see Ghadr et al 2021;Khatami et al 2020;Raeesi et al 2020;Shahrokhi-Shahraki et al 2020and Soltani et al 2019, 2022a. Notwithstanding their engineering performance benefits demonstrated for the above-mentioned applications, when considering the widespread use of TDA/GR material in the stabilization of the surface layer for dune sand deposits (as proposed by the Authors), it is the Discussers' perspective that the environmental and ecotoxicological concerns are to the fore.…”