Stabilization of clayey soils contaminated with lead and zinc nitrate using metakaolin geopolymer

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch

2 Department of Civil Engineering, , Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch

Abstract

One of the most important environmental problems humans face is soil pollution, which occurs in various factors and affects different soil parameters. one way to tackle this phenomenon is the stabilization of soils. This study presents the result of using metakaolin geopolymer to stabilize contaminated clay. In this study, the primary and contaminated soil without stabilizing are subject to various tests; The results of the first phase of the experiments showed that increased contamination concentration had a negative effect on soil parameters. The results of these experiments also showed that the most critical concentration of soil contamination was among the concentrations of 10000 ppm. Then the soil contaminated with the most critical concentration was stabilized by metakaolin geopolymer at 5, 10, and 15% weight and was re-tested and identified with various resistive in 7 days of curing time. Finally, the results achieved at this stage showed that by increasing the percentage of metakaolin geopolymer, the soil strength parameters have significantly increased, and the addition of geopolymer to contaminated soil of 10000 ppm has resulted in the stabilization of soil and improved soil properties. The results of the experiments showed that the most optimal state was the addition of 15% metakaolin geopolymer to the 10000 ppm contaminated soil, in which the liquid limit increased by 39.47%, the plastic limit increased by 51.06%, the plasticity index increased by 20.68%, the optimal moisture content increased by 19.84%, Dry Unit Weight decreased by 3.23%, unconfined compression strength increased 2.28 times and CBR increased 2.31 times, compared to the unstabilized 10000 ppm contaminated soil.

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