Stabilization of expansive clays in Oman

Swelling of expansive soils and the associated movement of foundations cause serious distress to many structures. With the existing expansive clays in Oman, many buildings have shown severe damages resulting in considerably high maintenance costs. To avoid such damages prior to construction, expansive clays may be stabilized. This paper reports the findings of an experimental investigation to reduce swelling properties of clays. For this reason a potentially expansive soil from Al-Khod was selected. Several economical stabilization techniques were applied. These include remolding the soil with different proportions of sand, lime and cement and finally using different proportions of salt in the pore fluid. All techniques were found effective in reducing the expansive behavior of the tested soil to various degrees, except salt which showed an increase in swelling potential. Furthermore, this study indicated that lime addition is best suited to improve the swelling behavior of the selected soil.