Improving Gypseous Soil Properties by Using Non-Traditional Additives

Abstract

Gypseous soils are common in several regions in the world including Iraq, where more than 28.6% of the Iraq surface is covered with this type of soil. This soil, with high gypsum content, causes different problems for construction and strategic projects. As a result of water flow through the soil mass, the permeability and chemical arrangement of these soils varies with time due to the solubility and leaching of gypsum. In this study, the soil of 36% gypsum content, was taken from one location, which is about 100 km southwest of Baghdad. The samples were taken from depths of 0.5 and 1 m below the natural ground and mixed with 3%, 6% and 9% of Copolymer and Novolac polymer to improve the collapsibility, permeability and compaction parameters. The results of the experimental work showed a noticeable improvement of the collapsibility and permeability of the soil treated with polymer materials compared to the untreated soil. Furthermore, adding 3% of polymer (copolymer and novolac polymer) materials gave the best improvement in collapsibility which reached a 44.5 and 46%, respectively, in 3 hours. The improvement in permeability reached 98.6% copolymer and 86.2% novolac polymer in 1 day. ©