Abstract
Gypseous soils are present in many parts of the world, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. While effects of addition of various percentages of gypsum on the engineering properties of soils have been investigated previously by many researchers, effects of presence of naturally occurring gypsum crystals on soil properties have been less studied. Study of these effects is important since many civil engineering developments need to be carried out in or on soils containing naturally occurring gypsum crystals. These crystals consist of fragile particles that break easily, even during handling and laboratory testing, and their presence affects many properties of in situ soils. Moreover, estimation of the percentage of crystallized gypsum in such soils usually requires unconventional chemical or physical tests since visually estimated percentages are often misleading due to the transparent nature of the crystal grains, especially when mixed with fine-grained soils. The current study presents results of tests on a low-plasticity clayey soil containing gypsum crystals. Percentages of crystals present in the soil are determined using a simple procedure involving water content determination of the soil dried at 110 and 40 °C. Effects of crystalized gypsum content on the in situ and laboratory properties of the clayey soil are studied, and results are discussed in the context of pavement design. It is shown that in situ soil unit weight, field CBR, plasticity, grains specific gravity, maximum dry density and optimum moisture content decrease with the increase in the gypsum crystal content of the soil.
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Relevant test data is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Imam, R., Saffari, A. Effect of gypsum crystals on the pavement design properties of a clayey soil. Arab J Geosci 16, 230 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11294-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11294-4