Study on lime–fly ash–phosphogypsum binder

Abstract

In this study a new type of lime–fly ash–phosphogypsum binder was prepared to improve the performances of lime–fly ash binder which was a typical semi-rigid road base material binder in China. The modified lime powder had much higher activity than ordinary quick lime or slaked lime powder, it was the best alkali activator to prepare lime–fly ash–phosphogypsum binder. The optimum formulation of this binder was consisted of 8–12% modified lime, 18–23% phosphogypsum and 65–74% fly ash. The parallel experiments shown that lime–fly ash–phosphogypsum binder had higher strength than ordinary lime, cement, and lime–fly ash stabilized soils road base materials, granular soils stabilized with this binder had higher later strength than that of lime–fly ash or cement stabilizing granular soil, it had higher early strength and steady strength development. The phosphogypsum hastened the pozzuolana reactions between the lime and fly ash, it reacted with lime and fly ash also, this reaction formed some AFt and the formation of AFt brought on a slight expansivity which could compensate the shrinkage of the binder. The pore structure of this binder was finer than that of the lime–fly ash, so the strength and performances of the road base material stabilized with lime–phosphogypsum–fly ash binder was much higher than those of the lime–fly ash road base material.