Combinations of binders for improvement/treatment of contaminated soils

Abstract

Soil improvement or soil treatment is the process of mixing binder (s) such as cement, blast furnace slag, fly ash, lime, basic oxygen furnace slag, desilicated fly ash, high carbon fly ash, modified clay, silica fume, sodium silicate, bentonite, dicalcium phosphate, high refractory cements, zeolite, activated carbon and others to the contaminated soil in order to improve its strength, bearing capacity, density, stiffness, workability, durability (e.g. freeze-thaw, wet-dry) and decrease its plasticity, leachability, porosity, permeability and compressibility. This process aims at minimising or controlling or stabilizing the rate of contaminant migration into the environment in order of converting them into less soluble, mobile, or toxic forms. Although there are many researches on improvement or treatment technology, very few investigations have been reported on binders of different combinations or in blended systems for the improvement or treatment of contaminated soils. Hence, this paper seeks to fill that knowledge gap in the literature by providing a critical review of binders of different combinations or in blended systems for the improvement or treatment of contaminated soils. This paper also proposed a model which researchers can use for selecting the journal for publishing their research works.