A Novel Application of the Hydrophobic Polyurethane Foam: Expansive Soil Stabilization.

Mohamed Ezzat Al-Atroush,Bandar Almeshari,Tamer A Sebaey,Omar Shabbir,Mohamed Waly

doi:10.3390/polym13081335

Mohamed Ezzat Al-Atroush, Bandar Almeshari + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13081335

Copy DOI

Abstract

The reversible shrink–swell behavior of expansive soil imposes a serious challenge that threatens the overlying structures’ safety and durability. Traditional chemical additives such as lime and cement still exhibit satisfying performance over their counterparts in terms of swelling potential reduction. Nevertheless, significant concerns are associated with these chemicals, in addition to their environmental impact. This paper proposes a novel application of the closed-cell one-component hydrophobic polyurethane foam (HPUF) to stabilize the swelling soil. An extensive experimental study was performed to assess the efficiency of HPUF in mitigating both the swelling and shrinkage response of high montmorillonite content expansive soil. Expansive soil was injected/mixed with different weight ratios of the proposed stabilizer, and the optimum mixing design and injection percentage of the foam resin were identified to be ranged from 10% to 15%. The shrink–swell behaviors of both injected and noninjected samples were compared. Results of this comparison confirmed that HPUF could competently reduce both the swelling potential and the shrinkage cracking of the reactive expansive soil, even after several wet-shrink cycles.

Highlights

Accepted: 12 April 2021Several case studies available in the literature [1,2,3,4,5,6] reported the significant volume change of expansive soil, upon fluctuation in moisture content, as the principal reason behind the induced damages or cracking of the overlying structures or pavements
This paper introduced a novel application of the closed-cell, one-component hydrophobic polyurethane foam (HPUF) to be used as a swelling soil stabilizer
Results of the laboratory tests performed confirmed that HPUF efficiently succeeded in mitigating both the swelling potential and the shrinkage cracking of the reactive expansive soil, even after several wet-shrink cycles

Summary

Introduction

Several case studies available in the literature [1,2,3,4,5,6] reported the significant volume change of expansive soil, upon fluctuation in moisture content, as the principal reason behind the induced damages or cracking of the overlying structures or pavements. This problematic reactive soil is susceptible to shrinkage or swelling (heave) when its moisture content decreases or increases, respectively. Several studies assessed the effectiveness of these new additives by comparing their effect with the effect of traditional solutions (lime or cement) in terms of the swelling pressure and potential

Methods

Results

Conclusion