Abstract
This paper presents an experimental study to investigate the effect of various disintegration times on the homogeneity of pre-treated natural soil before mixing with cementitious binders. Various disintegration times were applied, ranging from 10 s to 120 s. Four different soils were used with different characteristics from high, medium and low plasticity properties. Visual and sieving assessment were used to evaluate the best disintegration times to allow for a uniform distribution of water content and small-sized particles that would produce a uniform distribution of the binder around the soil particles. Results showed that a proper mixing time to homogenize and disintegrate the soil prior to treatment depended on several factors: soil type, water content and plasticity properties. For high plasticity soil, the disintegration time should be kept as short as possible. Increasing the disintegration time ha negative effects on the uniformity of distribution of the binder around soil particles. The homogenizing and disintegration time were less important for low plasticity soils with low water content than for medium to high plasticity soils. The findings could assist various construction projects that deal with soil improvement through preparation of soil before adding a cementitious binder to ensure uniformity of distribution of the binder around soil particles and obtain uniform soil–binder mixtures.
Highlights
Soil stabilization through addition of a hydraulic binder is used extensively to improve physical and mechanical properties of soft soils to achieve desired strength properties
A visual observation and standard dry sieving tests using a sieving machine were used to the ideal disintegration time for wet and air-dried specimens based on obtaining a smaller optimize the ideal disintegration time for wet and air-dried specimens based on obtaining a size of soil particles
Afterhomogenizing homogenizingthe thesoil soilatat6 and s disintegration times, the agglomerated soil particles started to break into small-sized particles, and 13 s disintegration times, the agglomerated soil particles started to break into small-sized as shown as in Figure for both wetfor and air-dried specimens
Summary
Soil stabilization through addition of a hydraulic binder is used extensively to improve physical and mechanical properties of soft soils to achieve desired strength properties. In Japan, the specimens are prepared according to the Japanese geotechnical society standard [7,8] These variations are related to differences in the soil type, type and procedure of soil stabilization in the field and the differences in traditional laboratory testing in general [5]. Disaggregating the natural soil prior to treatment has many effects such as homogenizing the soil, reducing the variation in water content and obtaining smaller chunks by separating the agglomerated particles. This process could assist in obtaining a uniform distribution for the cementitious binders around soil particles.
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