The Influence of Various Additives on the Plasticity Properties of Clayey Soil

Abstract

Properties of clayey soils including cohesion, plasticity, and shrinkage are crucial. Plasticity has a substantial impact on the geotechnical properties of clayey soils. Generally, high plasticity clayey soils have low bearing capacity and high swelling and settlement potential. For this reason, they are often not recommended as foundation ground. When these types of soils come into touch with water, they may undergo swelling, shrinking and immediate settlement. This situation negatively affects the structures established on the ground such as (road pavements, light constructions, etc.). Soil stabilization procedures including the addition of various chemical additives to the soil are extensively employed in this situation. In recent studies, many additives such as cement, lime, fly ash, silica fume have been added to various soil types and their effects on the geotechnical properties of soils have been investigated. The effects of various additions on the consistency limits of high plastic clayey soil were investigated in this study. The clayey soil was submitted to liquid limit and plastic limit tests by adding silica fume, lime, and fly ash at varying ratios. As a results, the chemicals utilized in the study were shown to considerably reduce the plasticity index of the soil. Lime has been determined to be the most effective additive on the consistency limits among the additives used.