Effects of freeze-thaw cycles on high-sulfated organic soil improved by waste of glass raw materials processing factory

Abstract

Changes in soil performance due to freeze–thaw cycles can lead to subsidence or swelling of asphalt, which will have a significant impact on road safety performance. The present study aims to stabilize sulfated fine-grained soil containing organic matter with waste from glass raw material production factory and to investigate the effects of Freeze–Thaw cycles on soil properties. First, to examine the effect of adding waste to the base soil before applying the F-T cycle, three compounds containing 5, 10, and 15% of waste were investigated. The results revealed that compounds containing 10, 5, and 15% of waste had the highest shear strength and CBR, respectively. Then, to investigate the effect of F-T cycles, UCS, triaxial tests, and CBR were performed for samples containing 5 and 10% waste with 90-day curing. After applying 4 different F-T cycles (3, 6, 9, and 12 cycles), while reducing the shear strength and CBR number of stabilized samples, the axial strain values showed an ascending trend. The resilience modulus was also calculated using the CBR results, indicating that in the stabilized samples, before and after the cycle, the recommended values of the standards were met. Thus, according to the results obtained for compounds containing 10% of waste, it was found that this waste can be used to reduce the amount of traditional stabilizers such as anti-sulfate cement or lime in cold regions to improve sulfated soils containing organic matter.

Keywords:

• Sulfated soil
• organic soil
• waste
• freeze–thaw cycles
• shear strength
• CBR

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Imam Khomeini International University and the laboratory portion of this research was carried out in the Soil Mechanics Laboratory of the Civil Engineering Department of IKIU. The authors thank the Civil Engineering Department.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the submitted article.