Swelling behaviour of expansive soils randomly mixed with recycled geobeads inclusion

Abstract

Expansive soils exhibit greater volume change with variation in moisture content. In this study, an attempt has been made to reuse the waste expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads as an environmentally friendly additive to mitigate the swelling potential. The swelling behaviour of expansive soil was examined with and without EPS geobeads inclusions. Several swell-compression tests were carried out on one-dimensional large consolidation apparatus (LCA) which can accommodate the California bearing ratio (CBR) mould. The swelling characteristics of remoulded soil specimens were evaluated with the addition of 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1% geobeads content (gc) by the dry weight of the soil. The test result shows that the increase in gc from 0.25 to 1%, there is a gradual decrease in the vertical swelling potential (i.e. percent swell and swelling pressure). A higher recycled gc inclusion up to 1% could be preferable to reduce maximum swelling potential, where compressional deformations are not of primary concern.

Experimental and Theoretical Study to Evaluate the Previous Studies for Expansive Soils

“…Soil stability is crucial for expansive soils to have less of a probability of expanding [20]. The goal of chemical stabilization is to provide chemicals that change the liquid limit and plastic limit, respectively, in addition to the plasticity index, which is lowered as a result of the constraints on the liquid and plastic [21].…”

Reduction Heave of Swelling Soil under Isolated Footing with Flat and Ribbed Geofoam

“…Distress can occur anywhere in the structure when the surge pressure surpasses the soil's overburden pressure. Swelling is mostly caused by active clay minerals like Montmorillonite, which are responsible for volumetric changes in this soil [3], [4]. The structure of Montmorillonite is similar to that of illite (see Figure . 1), but the layers are held together by weak van der Waals forces [5].…”

Discussion of “Behaviour of a Foam Mixture as a Lightweight Construction Material” [Int J of Geosynth and Ground Eng (2021) 7(3), 51]

“…As minor points, the Discussers note the Authors reported in Page 2 of their paper that the EPS foam beads tested, with 2-4 mm diameter range, had a density of about 0.01 kN/m 3 . It is the Discussers' experience that this value would seem to be one order of magnitude too small, with the reported density (unit weight) of various 2-4 mm diameter EPS beads materials ranging 0.11-0.20 kN/m 3 [8][9][10]. Furthermore, the units of the axial (volumetric) strain for the onedimensional compression (oedometer) results reported in the Authors' paper, including those for the y-axis of Fig.…”