Stabilisation of soils with emulsified sulphur asphalt for road applications

Abstract

This paper presents the study carried out to assess and compare the performance of marginal soils, namely marl, sabkha and dune sand stabilised with emulsified sulphur asphalt (ESA) with the mixtures of the same soils stabilised with conventional emulsified asphalt (EA) to be used as a base layer for road layers. The mixtures of ESA and EA for the three marginal soils were designed utilising 2% Portland cement and were optimised to meet dry and wet Marshall stability requirements. Designed mixtures were assessed for dry indirect tensile strength (ITS), static triaxial (shear strength) and dynamic resilient modulus at 22°C. Results indicate that ESA decreased the stability and shear strength of the treated soils compared to the conventional EA. On the other hand, there was an improvement in ITS, especially for marl and sabkha soils, and an increase in the resilient modulus of soils–ESA mixtures compared with standard soils–EA mixtures. ESA can be used successfully to construct base layers for roads from available marginal soils since it fulfilled the specification requirements.

Keywords:

• emulsified sulphur asphalt
• sulphur
• marginal soils
• mixtures
• stabilised base

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) for the execution of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.