Abstract
The Yellow River alluvial silt was stabilized into pavement base materials for cold regions. The stabilizing additives were cement, fly ash, and lime, which were included in a range of combinations and dosages when mixed with the silt. Freeze-thaw cyclic impacts were conducted on the treated samples to assess materials performance of withstanding the frost actions. The tests were conducted on samples cured for 7 days to up to 180 days. Test results show that the cement-fly ash-treated samples outperform the other two stabilization categories with respect to material strength and stiffness developed under both normal and frost conditions. Under the normal conditions, the material unconfined compressive (UC) strength rises to 3.0 MPa on day 28 depending on the cement and fly ash dosage used. If subjected to frost actions, the fly ash inclusions warrant a residual UC strength value of 1.3 MPa and above. The antifrost performance of the cement-fly ash-treated samples is related to thermal buffer capacity of the fly ash particles. Water adsorption and material soundness results agree with the strength and stiffness development. An optimal dosage was 3–6% for the cement and 0.3 for cement to fly ash mass ratio.
Highlights
The Yellow River is the second longest river in China
The results showed that 30% fly ash and 2% cement are the optimum dosages with respect to material strength gain, and samples with 10% fly ash and 2% cement exhibit favorable antifrost performance
In review of recent soil stabilization practices [8,9,10,11,12,13,14], the current study considered three common inorganic additives, Portland cement, Class F fly ash, and hydrated lime, as the stabilizers for the Yellow River alluvial silt
Summary
The Yellow River is the second longest river in China. As illustrated in Figure 1, the river originates in western China, flows toward the east, and empties into the Bohai Sea. The infrastructures, are exposed to seasonal frost action with a ground surface temperature of down to −10∘C from December to February and up to more than 30∘C in July and August each year [1]. Similar hybrid additives were attempted by Gulluand Khudir [7] who stabilized low plasticity silt using jute fiber and steel fiber together with lime and assessed the effect of freeze-thaw cycles on material strength. These studies illustrate the likelihood of stabilizing the Yellow River alluvial silt to counteract the frost action
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