Volume change behaviour of expansive soils stabilized with eps geofoam inclusions

Abstract

Expansive soils are predominantly found in arid and semi-arid regions of five continents in the world. These soils are constituted with montmorillonite clay mineral, which is reason for volume changes associated with variation in moisture content. Due to the undesirable volume changes in expansive soils, great distress and damages are caused to the overlying structure built on them. Particularly transportation infrastructures such as pavements, railroads, highways and runways are highly susceptible to damages since they extent to large areas. The annual costs associated with damages to the transportation infrastructure and lightly loaded structures on expansive soils estimated to run into several billion pounds worldwide. Over the past five decades, significant research has been performed to develop many innovative techniques to stabilize the expansive soils. Out of these techniques, physical and chemical alterations are well proven and effective traditional methods followed for the period of many years. However, the conventional stabilization agents like cement and lime are often lack in sustainability issues and also increase the greenhouse gas emission. The global people mind-set has been shifting towards more sustainable practices by the use of alternate materials in soil stabilization to replace or minimize the use of traditional cementitious agents. In recent times, the sustainable practices of using geosynthetics in soil stabilization is highly encouraged due to its desirable properties and durability. Amongst various geosynthetics materials, the expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam is a lightweight, multifunctional, cost-effective and perform wide variety of applications in geotechnical engineering such as embankment widening, slope stabilization and construction on soft ground. Moreover newline