Long Term Evaluation of Wetting-Drying Cycles for Compacted Soils Treated with Lime

Abstract

This article addressed the results of an experimental study that dealt with the behavior of recycled soil treated with lime and exposed to wetting-drying cycles at the long term. The object of this research was to focus on the effect of a wide range of lime content on evolution of volume and durability of stabilized soils, when exposed to wetting-drying cycles. In this work, an experimental study was performed on soils which were treated with 8 rates (0–8%) of lime. The treated soils were conserved for three different periods of cure: 7, 28 and 180 days, and then exposed to 12 wetting-drying cycles of 48 h for each cycle. However, the behavior under wetting-drying cycles was only satisfactory for lime percentages above 6%. The formation of C-S-H and C-A-H responsible for the increased strength of stabilized soil samples are showed and the expensive ettringite was also responsible for the decreased strength of stabilized soil samples.