Understanding the Impact of Lime Stabilization on Expansive Soil for Grounding and Analysis Adopting LIBS

Stabilization of soil for grounding purposes has been performed by adding different wt% of lime. Electrical breakdown measurements under lightning impulse voltage showed a reduction in breakdown voltage and the time to breakdown with increment in the lime content in the soil. These parameters also increased with curing period for all concentrations of lime of stabilized soil samples. The results show that pH and electrical conductivity of the expansive soil increase as the lime content increases, but decrease with increasing the curing period. Mineralogical and micro-structural analysis has been made by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies and by scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. The axial strength obtained from unconfined compressive strength (UCS) analysis, the plasma temperature and the electron number density calculated from Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) data tend to increase with increment in lime content as well as the curing period of the lime stabilized soil. Using univariate analysis, the normalized intensity ratio of Ca II peaks from LIBS spectral data are correlated with lime content in the soil samples at various curing periods. The partial least squares regression (PLSR) technique is successful in determining the soil parameters with the help of LIBS spectral data, at different curing periods with an R-2 value greater than 0.95 and the percentage RMSE value smaller than 4%.

Automated summary

The addition of lime to stabilize soil increases its strength and electrical properties, but pH and electrical conductivity decrease with longer curing periods. Analyzing mineralogical and micro-structural changes in the soil showed improvements in axial strength, plasma temperature, and electron number density with higher lime content and longer curing periods. Correlations between Ca II peaks in LIBS spectral data and lime content at different curing periods were successfully determined using PLSR technique with high accuracy.