Mixing workability and strength enhancement of cement-stabilized clay with tung oil

When passing through the clay stratum with the plastic index more than 25 and the water content less than 50%, the clay is easy to adhere to the mixing blade and rotating rod, indicating significant influences on the mixing workability and engineering performance of the cement-stabilized soil by using the deep mixing method. Tung oil, a kind of dry natural vegetable oil with excellent hydrophobic and lubricating properties, has been widely used to treat the raw soils as the construction materials. To investigate the influences of the tung oil on the mixing workability and strength of cement-stabilized clays, the Atterberg limit, empirical stickiness ratio and unconfined compressive strength are measured. Furthermore, the scanning electron microscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry and Fourier infrared spectroscopy are involved to explore the microscopic mechanism of the tung oil on the cement-stabilized clays. The results reveal that the incorporation of the tung oil can significantly improve the workability during the mixing process, and the optimal addition of the tung oil accounts for 4.0% of the dry clay. For the homogeneous stabilized clay with the tung oil, the strength can be enhanced for about 30%. The tung oil has a good application prospect for the in-situ stabilization by the deep mixing method, which is an important reference to overcome the mixing difficulty in this kind of clay strata.