The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of commercially available polymer soil stabilizers in expansive soil swell reduction relative to quicklime and Class C fly ash. A survey of state departments of transportation within the Mountain-Plains region of the USA (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) was conducted to define the state-of-practice in expansive soil mitigation, from which lime and fly ash were identified as the most used soil stabilizers. Four commercially available polymers were tested for comparison with lime and fly ash. Untreated and treated soils were classified, and tested for swelling pressure, swelling potential, unconfined compressive strength, and hydraulic conductivity (k). Relative to untreated soil, polymer treatment was less effective at reducing the swelling potential (70% reduction) and increasing unconfined compressive strength (46 kPa increase) of a highly expansive soil relative to lime (100% reduction, 1260 kPa increase) and fly ash (97% swelling potential reduction, 380 kPa increase in UCS). However, lime and fly ash treatments resulted in a 52,000- and 1,100-times increases in k, respectively, while polymer resulted in only a 2-times increase in k relative to the untreated soil (k = 2.9 × 10^-11 m/s). Polymer was also shown to be effective at reducing k to below 1.9 × 10^-12 m/s when used as a spray-on coating. The results of this study illustrate that polymers reduce swell in expansive soils by mechanisms that are different than lime and fly ash.

这项研究的目的是确定相对于生石灰和C类粉煤灰，可商购的聚合物土壤稳定剂在膨胀土壤膨胀减少方面的有效性。对美国山区平原地区（科罗拉多州，蒙大纳州，北达科他州，南达科他州，犹他州，怀俄明州）的州交通部门进行了调查，以确定缓解土壤膨胀的实践状态，石灰和粉煤灰被确定为最常用的土壤稳定剂。测试了四种市售聚合物与石灰和粉煤灰的比较。对未经处理的土壤和经过处理的土壤进行分类，并测试其溶胀压力，溶胀潜力，无侧限抗压强度和水力传导率（k）。相对于未经处理的土壤，聚合物处理相对于石灰（减少100％，增加1260 kPa）和粉煤灰，在降低膨胀力（减少70％）和增加无限膨胀抗压强度（增加46 kPa）方面效果不佳。 （溶胀潜力降低97％，UCS增长380 kPa）。然而，石灰和粉煤灰处理的k分别增加了52,000和1100倍，而聚合物相对于未处理的土壤仅使k增加了2倍（k  = 2.9×10 ^-11 m / s ）。还显示出聚合物可有效地将k降低至1.9×10 ^-12以下用作喷涂层时，m / s。这项研究的结果表明，聚合物通过不同于石灰和粉煤灰的机理来减少膨胀土壤中的膨胀。