Lime stabilization of lacustrine clays in the Canadian Prairies

• Main Author: Ganapathy, Gani Venkataraman.
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/6649

The investigation reported in this thesis was conducted at the University of Manitoba between August 1978 and May 1980. The objectives of the investigation were: 1.) To conduct routine tests on clays from two Canadian Prairie regions (specifically from Winnipeg and Regina) treated with various percentages of commercially available calcitic quicklime between 2% and 10% and observe the effect of lime on such engineering properties of the clays as plasticity, compaction and strength. This was primarily to confirm previous test results and to add to the existing data. 2.) To study the fabric of lime treated clays with the help of X-ray diffraction, DTA and electron microscopy with a view to gain a better understanding of the mechanism of the action of lime on these clays and to identify the reaction products. It was also the intention to ascertain the potential application of these methods in such studies. In addition to the samples prepared in the laboratory, shelby samples were recovered from the test sections with lime treated clays established, bY the Departments of Highways of the Provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, about twenty years back... The thesis consists of two parts. Sections 1 through 3 review the literature on lime treated soils up to May 1980 and establish the need for a comprehensive investigation in Canada on this subject on a regional basis... Sections 4 and 5 report on the tests conducted in this investigation and on the conclusions drawn from these tests... It is recommended that a more comprehensive research be undertaken on this subject. Such an investigation should include other aspects of lime stabilization such as compaction characterisitics, curing properties, realistic cutoff dates for lime stabilized projects in this country, effects of different types of limes and durability characteristics of lime stabilized clays. In addition, a comprehensive investigation into lime-flyash stabilization is needed. With dwindling aggregate resources and lime and cement both being high energy products (high calcination temperatures) soil stabilization with waste products such as flyash would be very timely.