Swell-shrink and strength behaviors of lime and cement stabilized expansive organic clays

• In organic clays, lime is effective in reducing plasticity than cement.
• Organics have moderate influence on unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of clays.
• The strength reduction is evident in high PI clays holding high organic content.
• High reduction in shrinkage strains for high PI organic clays treated with cement.
• The combination of PI and organic content governs the behavior of stabilized clay.

Organic soils are mostly composed of decayed plant matter and weathered rock material. Often, these soils are known for their inferior engineering behavior including very high compressibility and low shear strength. In order to improve these properties, organic soils are, by and large, modified with calcium based stabilizers such as lime, cement and fly ash. However, transportation agencies in the United States have mentioned that the anticipated improvements were never achieved or the improvement obtained disappeared quickly with time. Therefore, a research study was initiated to understand the behavioral mechanisms of lime and cement stabilized organic soils. Eight natural expansive soils bearing different organic contents (varying between 2 and 6%) were selected for the present investigation. First, optimum dosages of lime and cement were determined for the selected soils. Then treated and untreated (control) specimens were prepared to study their physical and engineering behaviors of the soil specimens at varied curing periods. There is a drastic increase in unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of lime and cement treated specimens until 28 days of curing. Beyond which, a negligible improvement in UCS property was recorded for lime treated specimens and a slight decrease in UCS for cement treated soils was noticed. This reduction in strength for cement treated specimens could be attributed to the reduction in pH concentration with curing as well as the formation of inorganic calcium humic acid at this stage.