Consolidation characteristics of lime stabilised soil.

Abstract

Soft clay is always associated with settlement and consolidation. Stabilisation of soft clay with lime as bearing stratum is an alternative to replacement of that material. The compression and consolidation characteristics of the stabilised material need to be fully understood for design purposes. This paper presents the results of study on the consolidation characteristics in terms of compressibility, rate of consolidation and the permeability characteristics of both unstabilised and lime stabilised soil samples using Oedometer test. Oedometer specimens of 50 mm diameter and 20 mm height were tested with respect to age at 0, 7, 14 and 28 days and effective stress at 0, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 kPa. Three soil types were selected and studied in this project; they are Tapah Kaolin, Sungai Buloh clay and UTM clay. From the test results, it is discovered that lime stabilisation improved the consolidation characteristics and reduced the settlement of unstabilised clay with age especially after stabilisation phase is achieved, i.e., after the age of 14 days.