Strength behaviour of lime-treated soils in the presence of sulphate

Abstract

Lime has been used extensively to improve the shear strength of fine-grained soils. It has been recently reported that the presence of sulphate causes abnormal volume changes in lime-stabilized soil. The paper presents the strength behaviour of lime-treated montmorillonitic natural black cotton soil in the presence of varying sulphate contents after curing for periods of up to 365 days. Alteration of soil-lime reactions in the presence of sulphate affects the strength development by cementation. Consequently, the stress-strain behaviour effective stress paths of soil cured with sulphate are similar to those of normally consolidated soil rather than cemented soils. The reduction in shear strength due to a reduction in effective cohesion intercept occurs for lime-treated soil cured with sulphate for long periods.