Volume Change and Cracks Behavior of Lime Treated Expansive Soils

This research work study the influence of cyclic wetting and drying on free swell potential of untreated and lime treated expansive clayey soils. Such a study is required to understand the behavior of these soils during wet-dry cycles. Two expansive soils (a polwhite bentonite and a kaolinite) with different plasticity indexes were used in this study. The soil samples were treated with different lime content in the order of (3, 5 and 7% by the dry weight of soil). The lime treated soil samples were cured at 20oC for 28 and 180 days. The untreated and lime treated soil samples were subjected to four wet-dry cycles. Free swell potential and cracks propagation were studied during lime addition and wet-dry cycles. Results showed that, the free swell potential of untreated soil samples; in general; decreased with increasing wet-dry cycles, and all of the soil samples reached equilibrium after the second cycle. While the cracks propagation increased with these cycles, especially of bentonite soil samples. Larger cracks propagation has been observed in the bentonite soil samples. Lime addition enhanced the free swell potential values of  the two expansive soils and there was a drastic decrease in free swelling potential and cracks propagation of these soils. The beneficial effect of lime treatment to control the swelling values was partly lost by the first wet–dry cycles, and the free swell potential increased at the subsequent cycles.