Parameters controlling strength of red mud-lime mix

Abstract

The present work enumerates the effect of lime, water content, dry density, water/lime ratio and porosity/lime ratio on the unconfined compressive strength (qu) of the red mud-lime mix at 28 days curing. The lime content has been varied from 3 to 11%. The results showed that the unconfined compressive strength (qu) increases non-linearly with the increase in lime content for the red mud-lime mix. It was also found that the strength increases with the decrease in both, porosity (η) and inverse of volumetric lime content (Lv); whereas, it decreases with the decrease in dry density for all the red mud-lime mix studied. A power model fits well with a fair degree of correlation between unconfined compressive strength and porosity, and between the unconfined compressive strength and inverse of the volumetric lime content. Finally, it was concluded that the porosity/adjusted volumetric lime content ratio is the key parameter and it plays an essential role in the assessment of strength for the range of red mud-lime mix studied.