Strength characteristic of brown kaolin treated with liquid polymer additives

Abstract

Kaolin deposits are considered to have poor engineering characteristics, exhibiting expansive properties, high plasticity, poor workability, and low shear strength. This may cause severe damage to civil engineering structures and facilities. Hence, these soils must be treated prior to construction operations, so that desired properties can be achieved. SS 299 is a liquid polymer stabilizers used as a compaction aid or a stabilizer for soil improvement. Yet, it is not used as a common approach when comes to soil stabilization due to its uncertainties in strength improvement when mixed with soils. As a result, laboratory testing programs were conducted to study the strength development of brown kaolin when treated with the liquid polymer with 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% and 15% of soil’s dry mass. The result indicated that the increase in the percentage of SS 299, increases the unconfined compression strength. The maximum value of the unconfined compressive strength of 385 kPa was observed at 15% SS 299 content, cured at 28 days, which was twice the strength of the untreated brown kaolin. The increment of strength was really steep for the first 7 days but the rate decreased thereafter. The optimum content of liquid polymer SS 299 was found as 12%.