Utilization of Polymers to Improve Soft Clayey Soils Using the Deep Mixing Method

Abstract

Deep mixing is an improvement method performed in the form of the creation of mixed columns, which includes the in-situ mixing of soil and lime or Portland cement using special equipment (using rigs with counter rotating augers). In this study, a series of unconfined compression tests on soft clayey soils with deep mixing using polymers were carried out. In the experiments, two polymers (i.e. polyester and guar gum) and lime were used as binder materials at different ratios. Samples cured for 14, 28 and 150 days, which were exposed to 5 and 10 cycles of freeze-thaw and samples that were not exposed to freeze-thaw cycles were tested in order to investigate the freeze-thaw effect. The unconfined compressive strength increased continuously with the increase of polyester and curing period, while the changes on unconfined compressive strength with increase of freeze-thaw cycles were insignificant. The overall evaluation of the results has revealed that polyester and guar gum showed potential as a candidate for deep mixing applications on soft clayey soils.