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Behavior of expansive soils stabilized with fly ash

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Abstract

Expansive soils cause serious problem in the civil engineering practice due to swell and shrinkage upon wetting and drying. Disposal of fly ash, which is an industrial waste in both cost-effective and environment-friendly way receives high attention in China. In this study, the potential use and the effectiveness of expansive soils stabilization using fly ash and fly ash-lime as admixtures are evaluated. The test results show that the plasticity index, activity, free swell, swell potential, swelling pressure, and axial shrinkage percent decreased with an increase in fly ash or fly ash-lime content. With the increase of the curing time for the treated soil, the swell potential and swelling pressure decreased. Soils immediately treated with fly ash show no significant change in the unconfined compressive strength. However, after 7 days curing of the fly ash treated soils, the unconfined compressive strength increased significantly. The relationship between the plasticity index and swell-shrinkage properties for pre-treated and post-treated soils is discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This study is financially supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 50478073), Science Research and Develop Foundation of Hefei University of Technology (No. 2007GDBJ031). The authors highly appreciate Professor A. Sridharan, Guest Professor of Institute of Lowland Technology, Saga University for his helpful comments and discussions. The authors also thank Professor Guoqiang Wang, Hefei University of Technology, for his guidance in the sampling of the expansive soil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui Province, 230009, China

    Fusheng Zha & Kerui Cui

  2. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210096, China

    Songyu Liu & Yanjun Du

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  1. Fusheng Zha
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  2. Songyu Liu
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  3. Yanjun Du
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  4. Kerui Cui
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Correspondence to Fusheng Zha.

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Zha, F., Liu, S., Du, Y. et al. Behavior of expansive soils stabilized with fly ash. Nat Hazards 47, 509–523 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-008-9236-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-008-9236-4

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