National Concrete Pavement Technology Center

Project description

The resilient modulus of bases and subgrade is one of the most important parameters used in the design of flexible pavement. In Region 8, there is an abundance of expansive soil from the Pierre Shale formation, which is known to be often rich in gypsum which is a major source of sulfate in soils. Traditional soil treatment methods like chemical stabilization using lime or cement may not work in such soils due to sulfate-induced heave. Very limited research has been conducted on the studying the variation of resilient modulus of such sulfate-rich expansive soils. The effects of climate change may induce additional distress on the pavement infrastructure including embankments on which they are built which needs to be analyzed to ascertain the resiliency of the pavement infrastructure in the region. In the proposed study, a series of repeated load triaxial tests and suction-controlled triaxial tests will be conducted on a newly fabricated advanced triaxial setup to study the response of such problematic soils before and after treatment to evaluate the resiliency of such materials to potential cycles of extreme precipitation and drought-like conditions. Additional studies will be conducted to investigate the volume change during the wetting and drying cycles.