The Effect of Saturated Lime Solution on Increasing the Strength of Silty Sandy Soils

Due to the increase of construction projects, we are faced with the necessity of using lands, having loose and soft soils more than before. Recently a new method for strengthening these soils has been developed, by which saturated lime is intruded into soil. As it penetrates due to the gravity, improves the soil strength through pozzolanic reactions. In this paper, the influence of two key parameters, on the improvement of unconfined strength of sandy soils is studied. Two sets of laboratory tests were conducted on silty sandy soil specimens. In the first set, the saturated lime solution (SLS) was intruded with different volumes through the specimens and then they have been used for uniaxial strength test. In the second set, after passing specific volume of SLS through the specimens, they have spent different curing times under controlled humidity and temperature conditions, then have been used for uniaxial strength test. The first set of tests indicates that the uniaxial strength increases with an increase of the volume of infiltrated solution linearly. And the second indicates, contrarily to clay soils, the curing time, cannot be a contributing factor to the improvement of the silty sandy soils.