Study on progression of deterioration in improved surplus soils

Abstract

This study investigated the progression of deterioration in cement treated surplus soils with cement contents of 1.7, 3.5 and 5.3 % under soaked condition by conducting needle penetration test and measuring calcium ion distribution within soil specimens. It was found that deterioration has progressed throughout the specimen after 336 days soaking in all the cases. From the measurement of calcium ion distribution, it was identified that calcium has leached out from the centre to the surface of the specimens though that distribution did not follow a good correlation with localized strength distribution. It was understood that the progression of deterioration of improved surplus soils with lower cement contents cannot be explained only with the remaining amount of calcium.

Effect of curing conditions on long term mechanical property of improved surplus soils

“…It was reported in the previous studies that leaching of Ca with a decrease in pH value caused the decline in strength of the improved soils [1][2][9][10]. As introduced more in detail by the authors [8], it was also known that there were several possible states of Ca in the improved soils. Some of them were believed to be related with the strength of the soils highly.…”

“…Types and contents of the binders, conditions of curing and specimens when tested, and types of water for soaked curing were organized in Table 2 with indicating their notation abbreviated in this paper. It should be mentioned that a series of needle penetration tests have also been conducted simultaneously to understand the progression of deterioration of the improved surplus soils under soaked condition [8].…”