Stabilisation of soft soils
Henok Shiferaw and Barbara Schneider-Muntau
Soil stabilization is a process of improving and/or modifying certain properties of soils for engineering applications. It involves mechanical, chemical, biological, and combined methods. Soils stabilization is a common practice in the construction industry where it has been practiced for a long period of time. All types of soils may require some sort of treatment. However, soft, and expansive clays are at the forefront of the need for stabilization. Soft clays have low shear strength and high compressibility, which makes them not desirable for foundation unless treated. Expansive clays undergo cyclic swelling and shrinkage with moisture content fluctuations. Expansive clays are usually referred to as ‘problematic soils’ in the construction industry. Billions of dollars of property are lost due to soft and expansive clays every year. Soil stabilization is a well-established research area. However, there is still a need for more data and in this research project, the improvements in stiffness, strength, and other engineering properties of chemically treated soft and expansive clays will be studied through thorough laboratory experiments. Moreover, machine learning based predictive models for swell estimation of expansive soil will be developed and evaluated.