Lime Content for Lime-Stabilized Soils

To determine the design lime content for a sub grade soil, the following steps are suggested:

1. Determine whether the soil has at least 25% passing the 75-µm sieve and has a plasticity index (PI) of at
least 10. The soil screening criteria also limit soluble sulfates to less than 0.3 % by weight in a 10:1 water-
to-soil solution.
2. Determine the initial design lime content by mixing varying amounts of lime with the soil in water and
measuring the pH levels in 1-hour intervals. Select the lowest lime mixture level for which a pH of 12.4
occurs as the initial design lime content.
3. Using the initial design lime content conduct moisture-density tests to determine the maximum dry density
and optimum water content of the soil lime mixture defined by the user agency, e.g., AASHTO T-99,
AASHTO T-180, ASTM D 698, or ASTM D 1557. The procedures in ASTM D 3551 will be used to prepare
the soil-lime mixture.
4. Prepare specimens at optimum moisture content and specified density requirement (e.g., 90% of
AASHTO T-180) using the initial design lime content and at about 2% and 4% lime above that lime
content from Step 1. Cure the test specimens in sealed plastic bags for 28 days at 21°C (73°F).
(Alternative - cure for 7 days at 40°C (104°F)).
5. Determine the unconfined compressive strength for all cured test specimens (e.g., ASTM 5102). Select
as the construction design lime content the minimum percent required to achieve the required
compressive strength (e.g., 150 psi). Either prepare a sample at the design lime content and perform
resilient modulus test (e.g., AASHTO T 294-94) or estimate from Unconfined compression strength Q u. A
conservative estimate for lime-stabilized soils has been reported to be obtained from (Thompson, 1970):

MR = 0.124 qu + 9.98

where,

MR = resilient modulus, ksi,

qu = unconfined compressive strength, psi, as tested in accordance with ASTM D 5102, "Standard Test
Method for Unconfined Compressive Strength of Compacted Soil-Lime Mixtures"

6. Add 0.5 - 1% additional lime in the lower percentage ranges to compensate for problems associated with
non-uniform mixing during construction.

Laboratory testing should always be performed to check whether the stabilization has the desired effect
on other engineering properties like plasticity and strength.

Trial and error

- Blending
- Gravel doesn’t meet the spec(PI<=16%, CBR=G45); CBR failed, PI failed
- The option we have is to get new borrow pit(xpensive)
- Because of costs, the option chemical stabilization
- We need the percentage lime to give us the necessary specs
- Trial and error
- Start with 1% lime, 2% lime, ……….by mass of the oven dried material
- For subgrade its btn 4% - 6%
- Recommended specification of natural subgrade when used without chemical stabilization
- Minium soaked CBR – 4%
- Max linear shrinkage -12%
- Min modified aastho density – 90%
- Min Grading Modulus – 0.75%
- Spec
- Test for CBR, PI,MDD
- 2%
- In the laboratory

Determine the dosage of lime in a soil-lime mixture.

Steps
indicator