Dispersive Soils: Properties, Identification, Classification and Stabilization

Abstract

The application of dispersive soil can result in various types of damage, and even the collapse of embanked build-ings if it is not identified. Dispersive soils cannot be uniquely identified by visual identification in the field, or by usual standard methods used for soil identification in the geo-mechanical laboratory. The paper presents the results of laboratory geomechanical tests aimed at identifying and classifying erodible dispersive fine-grained soil. The tests were carried out using the crumb test, the double hydrometer test (SCS), and the pinhole test on samples: sandy clay embankment dams of ‘Rovni’, loess from different locations (Zemun, Novi Beograd, Titel, Kelebija, Srbobran, Slanka-men, Ruma, Mali Iđoš) and kaolinite sandy clay deposits Grabež - Aranđelovac. The possibility of improving disper-sive soil by adding fly ash was also analyzed. Pinhole tests on dispersive soil samples with the addition of 10, 30 and 50 % ash showed that there was a decrease in dispersivity of natural soil for one to two dispersion classes.