Development of liquid soil stabilizer (Ca2+) to reduce long-term embankment settlement

Abstract

Honam High-Speed Railway in South Korea has suffered from long-term embankment settlement. The fines content in embankment material was pointed out as one of the causes. To reduce the settlement, Liquid Soil Stabilizer (LSS) was developed which is mainly composed of calcium chloride (CaCl2) or calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2). In this paper, the embankment materials consisting of low-plastic fines, which were represented by kaolinite-sand mixtures (20, 30, and 40% fines content), were treated by Liquid Soil Stabilizer (LSS) and the efficiency of LSS was evaluated by laboratory tests. For the application of LSS, the analysis of the engineering properties, compression behaviour, and creep settlement of embankment material including low-plastic fines was conducted. The LSS reduced the plasticity in all mixtures of soil as fines content increases. Application of the LSS could also provide better compaction efficiency and could reduce the void ratio change in one-dimensional compression. Therefore, to reduce long-term settlement of the embankment, the usage of LSS will be suitable as the on-site soil stabilization method without considering curing time.