Friday, December 19, 2014

Learning About Chemical Soil Stabilization

By Claudine Hodges


This is the process that is used to enhance the engineering properties of soil in order to improve its stability. Chemical soil stabilization usually entails the use of chemical components in enhancing soils. Stabilizing soils is necessary whenever the available soil for construction is unsuitable for the needed function. It usually entails compaction, drainage and preconsolidation among other processes.

An oversight of some of the particular methods which get adopted in making the soils firm, the advantages accrued and their disadvantaged are later explained in the article. To add on, main reasons why most major firms that adopt these methods are at of superior level gets established. Some of the most common procedures that are used to stabilize soils all over the world include;

Cement stabilization - This procedure is very much common in the compaction methods. It is embraced mainly because of its nature of being cost effective in addition to the ease in availability of cement. The soil gets mixed with cement so as to boost its robustness and strength. The final results are usually durable and fair in addition to being resistant to various weathers thus making this method the ideal choice on sandy environments.

The above method however is somehow labor intensive and can also pose threats that can be detrimental to the environment. In addition to this, as the soil cement mixtures that results is of higher durability, it can sometime also be susceptible to cracking and this can be one of its drawbacks.

Lime stabilization - It is yet another very popular method is stabilizing soils. The procedure is usually not nearly cost effective as compared to cement. What actually makes it expensive is the cost of burning limestone that is required in the process. It is also harmful to environment. It however does not increase the strength and soils stability especially in dry environments where materials can be compacted. The compressive strengths ought to be increased in some situations.

Chemical stabilization - These are mostly of wider groups since there are multiple applications which are unique of each other. Major benefit posed by this approach is the possibility of developing solutions which can made in such a way that they fit specific environments which are in need. Consequently, this leads to enhanced performance in addition to the reliability of this method. The chemicals adopted in this procedure are costly and are also pollutants.

Polymer stabilization - The polymer based methods are the most up to date methods. They do present various advantages over the more traditional methods. They usually involve combining the soils with unreactive, environmentally friendly polymer based materials. One great advantage of these methods is that they fail impact the environment negatively while also creating waterproof, semi flexible pavements. Advantages are offered in terms of strength and also by being very affordable options.

Owing to the above, it is clear that many benefits do come with each procedure. Most are economical, easy to maintain, less prone to damages, durable and when used with the appropriate proportions they can be environmentally safe. Innovative procedures can be used to enhance the methods properties so as to acquire ideal final products.




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