Lime Stabilization of a Virginia Clay Soil

The fact that when lime is added to clayey soils same very beneficial results are produced dates back into the remote past. It is not a new development, In the United States lime has been in use since l923.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of increasing soaking time of soil-lime mixtures on the strength, swell potential, and degree of saturation. In order to ascertain the exact composition of clay minerals, X-ray diffraction analysis was run on the soil sample. The analysis showed that the clayey soil contained a large amount of water with a greater percentage of halloysite minerals. The soil, it was concluded, was poorly crystalline and was found to be midway between montmorillonite and kaolinite group.