Determinatiom of initial consumption of lime(ICL)

[msesi]

I'm currently carrying out some test for deterimning the initial consumption of lime(ICL)for a certain soil materials taken from borrowpits.The soil laboratory where the test are carried out gave me a wonderfull terst results.They gave me 5 to 6%cement to cater for the initial consumption of lime/cement.In principle,according to my experince in African soils,it usually range from (0.5 to 1)%lime or cement.Please if there is some one know the reason for this outcome,assist because it is my first time to see such kind of test results.

 

[Ron]

Those results are high. One reason for elevated ICL need is that the soil might be acidic (probably organic or highly organically stained). Pretreat with lime, then use cement. I would recommend a full soil-cement design procedure for this soil.

 

[msesi]

Thanks Ron for your technical advise.Principally we are using a full-cement design procedure for testing the ICL.

 

[singkt]

The lab test result you got, i.e/, 5-6 % is normal. Then, you have to adjust this 5-6%, based on the portion of materials passing 0.425 mm sieve, as it is only the finer materials which are considered as interacting with lime or cement.

 

[msesi]

Hi singkt,thanks you for your reply.In principle the soil material was sieved down on 0.45mm sieve and then the determination of the initial consumption of lime/cement started.The question is the ICL obtained was too high compared to other soils.This means that the soil is not economical for stabilization.

 

[singkt]

Msesi,


Could you please enlighten the soil description including the PI, % down 0.075 mm sieve, maximum size, etc? Why are you stabilising for? Is the material well graded? Actually, there are some materials which are not fit or economical for stabilisation, but in most cases, African soils are fit for lime or cement stabilisation.

Doing the ICL test on materials sieved down on 0.425 mm sieve is the normal procedure; but what I meant was,do you have considered the %age of borrow area materials passing 0.425 mm which you got from your grading test? Example - ICL from % lime versus pH graph is 6% (before adjusting to %age of materials down 0.425 mm)and from grading test materials down 0.425 mm size is 30%. If the test is done by external lab. they may write you the ICL as 6% and it is up to you to adjust it. Adjusted ICL = 6%X30% = 1.8. Normally, you are required to add 1% lime to stop reversal of the stabilisation. Then, the ICL you report will be 2.8%.