JKSUES 216 No.

of Pages 6
19 September 2016
Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences (2016) xxx, xxx–xxx
1

King Saud University

Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences

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2 ORIGINAL ARTICLES

4 Effect of by-product steel slag on the engineering

5 properties of clay soils
6 Faisal I. Shalabi a,*, Ibrahim M. Asi b, Hisham Y. Qasrawi c,1

a
7 Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia
b
8 Arab Center for Engineering Studies, Amman, Jordan
c
9 Department of Civil Engineering, Hashemite University, Zarqa 13115, Jordan

10 Received 16 November 2015; accepted 19 July 2016

11

13 KEYWORDS Abstract Clay soils, mainly if they contain swelling minerals such as smectite or illite, may cause
14
15 Steel slag; severe damage to structures, especially when these soils are subjected to wetting and drying condi-
16 Clay soil; tions. High expansion and reduction in shear strength and foundation bearing capacity will take
17 Stabilization; place due to the increase in water content of these soils. The engineering properties of these kinds
18 Swelling; of soils can be improved by using additives and chemical stabilizers. In this work, by-product steel
19 Strength; slag was used to improve the engineering properties of clay soils. Lab and field experimental pro-
20 CBR grams were developed to investigate the effect of adding different percentages of steel slag on plas-
ticity, swelling, compressibility, shear strength, compaction, and California bearing ratio (CBR) of
the treated materials. The results of tests on the clay soil showed that as steel slag content increased,
the soil dry density, plasticity, swelling potential, and cohesion intercept decreased and the angle of
internal friction increased. For the CBR, the results of the tests showed an increase in the CBR
value with the increase in slag content.
21 Ó 2016 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

22 1. Introduction erable amount of clay minerals susceptible to volume change, 25

such as Montmorillonite (smectite) and illite minerals. In wet 26

23 Behavior of clay soils with change in moisture content should seasons, these soils swell and become soft as they gain water, 27

24 be given great attention, especially if these soils have a consid- while in dry seasons they shrink and become hard as they lose 28
water. This behavior is expected to cause severe damage to 29

* Corresponding author. Fax: +966 3 581 7068. structures that are built on such soils. According to 30
Wyoming Office of Homland Security (2014) the USA looses 31
E-mail addresses: fshalabi@kfu.edu.sa (F.I. Shalabi), iasi@aces-int.
com (I.M. Asi), Qasrawi@hu.edu.jo (H.Y. Qasrawi). about $2.3 billion/year due to structural damage (including: 32
1
Fax: +962 5 382 6348. buildings, roads, pipelines, and others) as a result of the swel- 33

Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University. ling behavior of the expansive soils. 34
Many studies were carried out to reduce the damage effect of 35
expansive soils (in terms of swelling or strength reduction) on 36
structures. These studies used additives or admixtures as stabi- 37
Production and hosting by Elsevier lizers (such as lime, cement, fly ash, calcium chloride, olive 38

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2016.07.004
1018-3639 Ó 2016 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Please cite this article in press as: Shalabi, F.I. et al., Effect of by-product steel slag on the engineering properties of clay soils. Journal of King Saud University –
Engineering Sciences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2016.07.004
 JKSUES 216 No. of Pages 6
19 September 2016
2 F.I. Shalabi et al.

39 waste, and asphalt), geo-textiles, and compaction-moisture con-

Table 1 Properties of the used materials.
40 trol among other methods. Al-Malack et al. (2014) used fuel oil
41 fly ash (FFA) to stabilize marl soil. In their conclusions, the Property Clay soil Steel slag
42 authors indicated that the treated marl met the durability and Specific gravity 2.71 FA: 3.2
43 strength requirements. Seco et al. (2011) studied the effect of CA: 3.1
44 adding different additives (lime, natural gypsum, magnesium Liquid limit, % 51.9 Non-plastic
45 oxide, Rice fly ash, coal fly ash, steel fly ash, and aluminum filler) Plastic limit, % 27.9 Non-plastic
46 on the swelling and strength behavior of highly expansive clay Plasticity index, % 24 Non-plastic
47 soil. The results showed that adding 2% of lime with 1% of mag- Minerals or chemical Major: quartz Cr = 0.063
48 nesium oxides tremendously reduced the swelling percentage of composition (ppm) Minor: smectite Ni = 0.004
49 the treated clay soil. Onur (2009) investigated the effect of lime- Trace: illite, calcite, Fe = 0.019
50 stone and marble dust on the swelling behavior of expansive dolomite, and
51 soils. The results showed that around 21–28% reduction in the kaolinite
52 percentage swell was achieved when 5% of dust added to the Zn = 0.021
Pb = 0
53 treated soil. Assa’d and Shalabi (2004) studied the effect of add-
Cu = 0
54 ing fly ash, cement, and lime on the strength of highly plastic clay Cd = 0
55 soil. The results showed that the strength increased when the soil
56 was mixed with lime or cement besides the fly ash. Kumar and Abrasion loss at 500 16.4
57 Sharma (2004) found that the addition of fly ash reduced the soil revolution, %
Abrasion ratio 11.5
58 plasticity, swelling characteristics, permeability and increased
(100/500), %
59 the undrained shear strength of the treated soil. Sobhan and Absorption, % FA: 4.5
60 Mashnad (2003) found that the use of plastic strips increased CA: 2.3
61 the compressive strength, split tensile and flexural strength of Soil activity 1.2 –
62 the soil–cement–fly ash composite. Al-Rawas et al. (2002) and Maximum dry density 18.02 –
63 Al-Rawas (2002) studied the effect of cement dust, copper slag, (mod. proctor), kN/m3
64 slag-cement, and granulated blast furnace slag on the swelling Optimum water 15.6 –
65 behavior of expansive soils. The results showed that the swell content (mod.
66 pressure and swell percent of the treated soil had been reduced proctor), %
67 as a result of particle aggregation. Cokca (2001) found that Gravel size % 3.1 91
Sand size % 10.3 9
68 the increase in the percent of fly ash and curing time decreased
Silt size % 64.1 0
69 the swelling potential, activity, and plasticity of the treated soil. Clay size % 22.5
70 Wild et al. (1999) found that granulated blast furnace slag added Classification (USCS)* CH–MH GP
71 to an adequate amount of lime reduced the swelling potential of ¥
72 gypsum-bearing kaolinite clay. Attom and Al-Sharif (1998) con- FA: Fine Aggregates, CA: Coarse Aggregates.
*
Sieve # 200 (0.075 mm) separates between fine and coarse
73 cluded that the use of burned olive waste reduced the swelling
grains.
74 pressure and plasticity of highly plastic soils. Basma et al.
75 (1998) showed that the use of cement with expansive clay caused
76 a reduction in soil swelling characteristics.
77 The objective of this study was to investigate the use of by- and chemical properties were measured and these include: 97
78 product steel slag aggregates (SSA) as a stabilizer. Large quan- grain size distribution, plasticity, specific gravity, and clay min- 98
79 tities of steel slag are produced daily in Jordan from steel man- erals. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the soil consists of 99
80 ufacturing processes. Currently, by-product steel slag material quartz as a major mineral constitute, smectite as minor min- 100
81 is dumped randomly in open areas. If not recycled or disposed eral, and trace amounts of illite, calcite, dolomite, and kaolin- 101
82 in properly designed landfills, the toxic elements such as Cr, ite. The soil plasticity index and activity were 24 and 1.2, 102
83 Ni, and Zn (see Table 1) may migrate to and pollute the sur- respectively. According to Skempton’s (1953) activity classifi- 103
84 face water and groundwater and affect the human life and cation, the soil is classified as ‘‘normal”. Table 1 summarizes 104
85 the environment. In addition to that, the very fine particles the used soil properties and Fig. 1 shows its grain size distribu- 105
86 of by product steel slag are expected to pollute the air. The tion. According to the Unified Soil Classification System 106
87 investigation of this work focused on the engineering proper- (USCS) the soil was classified as CH–MH (highly plastic clay 107
88 ties of a stabilized clay soil as a sub-grade material used in road and silt). 108
89 pavement and foundation. The investigation considered the
90 effect of SSA on plasticity, swelling behavior, compressibility, 2.2. Steel slag aggregates 109
91 shear strength and California bearing ratio (CBR) of the trea-
92 ted clay soil.
The steel slag aggregates (SSA) were obtained from the United 110
Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company, Amman. The aggre- 111
93 2. Materials gates that passed 1.0 inch sieve were used in this study. The 112
specific gravity of the fine and coarse portions of the aggre- 113
94 2.1. Clay soil gates were 3.2, 3.1 respectively. The chemical tests showed that 114
the aggregates were free of Cadmium (Cd) and Copper (Cu) 115
95 The soil used in this study was brought from the western part elements, as shown in Table 1. The results of the grain size dis- 116
96 of the city of Amman (along Mecca Street). The soil physical tribution of the used aggregates are shown in Fig. 1. According 117

Please cite this article in press as: Shalabi, F.I. et al., Effect of by-product steel slag on the engineering properties of clay soils. Journal of King Saud University –
Engineering Sciences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2016.07.004
 JKSUES 216 No. of Pages 6
19 September 2016
Effect of by-product Steel Slag on the Engineering Properties of Clay Soils 3

optimum water content and maximum dry density that were 130
determined from Modified Proctor Compaction test. Table 2 131
summarizes the performed tests at different percentages of 132
steel slag. 133

4. Results and discussion 134

4.1. Plasticity of clay soils 135

Results of liquid limit (LL) and plasticity index (PI) tests of the 136
treated clay soil are shown in Fig. 3. In this figure, it can be 137
seen that both liquid limit and plasticity index decrease almost 138
linearly with the increase in steel slag content. Reduction in LL 139
and PI of the treated soil is expected due to the non-plastic nat- 140
ure of the steel slag particles (the slag is granular materials 141
Figure 1 Grain size distribution of the used materials. classified as GP, Table 1). It is important to notice that the 142
added steel slag changed the treated soil classification from 143
CH–MH (highly plastic clay and silt) to CL–ML (low plastic 144
118 to the USCS, the material is classified as GP (poorly graded clay and silt). 145
119 gravel).
120 Fig. 2 shows the locations of the collected samples (clay soil 4.2. Swelling potential of the clay soil 146
121 and steel slag) within the districts of the capital city of Jordan,
122 Amman. In order to investigate the effect of steel slag on the swelling 147
potential of the clay soil, swell tests were performed at opti- 148
123 3. Testing program mum water content condition using different percentages of 149
steel slag. Fig. 4 shows that as the steel slag content increases, 150
124 To achieve the objectives of this study, a testing program was the parentage of free swell decreases almost linearly. The free 151
125 designed to investigate the behavior of the treated clay soil. swell of the treated soil was reduced from 5.1% for 0% steel 152
126 The tests included Atterberg limits, swelling, unconfined com- slag to 3% for 15% steel slag, and to 1.7% for 30% steel slag. 153
127 pressive strength, direct shear, and California bearing ratio In this figure, the free swell is defined as the change in the sam- 154
128 (CBR). These tests were performed at different percentages ple thickness with respect to its initial thickness. The results of 155
129 of steel slag added to the treated soil at the conditions of zero swell tests showed that the swell pressure decreases with 156

Figure 2 Locations of the used materials within the districts of Amman – Jordan.

Please cite this article in press as: Shalabi, F.I. et al., Effect of by-product steel slag on the engineering properties of clay soils. Journal of King Saud University –
Engineering Sciences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2016.07.004
 JKSUES 216 No. of Pages 6
19 September 2016
4 F.I. Shalabi et al.

Table 2 Testing program of the stabilized clay soil.

Test Standard % Used of steel slag
Plasticity ASTM D4318 0, 5, 15, 30
Unconfined compression ASTM D2166-85 0, 5,10, 15, 20, 30
Direct shear ASTM D3080-90 0,15, 30,100
Free swell ASTM D4546-90 0, 5,10, 15, 20, 30
CBR test ASTM D1883-87 0, 15, 30
Compaction ASTM D698, D1557 0, 15, 30
Specific gravity ASTM D854 0
Grain size analysis ASTM D422 0
Classification of materials (USCS) ASTM D2484 0

100 200
90
Mecca street soil Mecca street soil (Clay soil)
(Clay soil) 175 Opmum condion
80
LL = -0.6333 (SC) + 51.167 150 SP = -2.8371(SC) + 103.33
70
Aerberg limits, %

R² = 0.98 R² = 0.94

Swell pressure, kPa

60 125
50
PI = -0.3714 (SC) + 23.643
Liquid Limit, LL 100
R² = 0.98
40
75
30
Plascity index, PI 50
20

10 25
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 0
Slag content, % 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Slag content, %
Figure 3 Atterberg limits of the treated clay soil.
Figure 5 Variation of the treated clay soil swell pressure with
steel slag content.

10
Mecca street soil (Clay soil) with the increase in steel slag content is due to the non- 164
9
Opmum condion plastic nature of the steel slag aggregates. 165
8
7 4.3. Unconfined compressive strength and optimum compaction 166
Free swell, %

6
5 Unconfined compression tests were conducted on 167
3.6 cm  7.6 cm samples of clay-slag prepared at the optimum 168
4 F S = -0.156(SC) + 5.44
compaction conditions of 0% steel slag content compaction 169
R² = 0.94
3 curve. Different percentages of steel slag were added to the 170

2 clay for UCS tests at the maximum dry density and optimum 171
water content of the soil based on the soil dry density and 172
1
water content compaction curve that was obtained from the 173
0 compaction test of just pure clay soil. The results of the tests 174
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
indicated that the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) 175
Slag content, % decreased with the increase in steel slag content, as shown in 176
Fig. 6 (curve A). As can be seen in this figure, the UCS of 177
Figure 4 Variation of the treated clay soil swell with steel slag
the clay soil decreased from 500 kPa for 0% slag to 150 kPa 178
content.
for 30% slag. In addition, the results showed that the rate of 179
strength reduction of the treated clay soil is significant in the 180
range of low percentages of steel slag content. For soil-slag 181

157 the increase in steel slag content. Fig. 5 shows that the swell samples tested for UCS at maximum dry density and optimum 182

158 pressure decreased from 110 kPa for 0% steel slag to 55 kPa water content obtained from the compaction curve of soil-slag, 183

159 for 15% steel slag and to a value of 25 kPa for 30% steel slag. curve B in Fig. 6 indicates that the UCS decreases with the 184

160 If the ratio of swell pressure in kPa to swell value in percentage increase in slag content then slightly increases for slag content 185

161 is considered, this ratio is 20 for 0% steel slag and 15.2 for greater than 15%. Fig. 7 shows the compaction curves of the 186

162 30% steel slag (i.e. the ratio decreases with the increase in steel soil-slag at different steel slag contents, which represents the 187

163 slag content). The decrease in swell value and swell pressure results of UCS of curve B of Fig. 6. 188

Please cite this article in press as: Shalabi, F.I. et al., Effect of by-product steel slag on the engineering properties of clay soils. Journal of King Saud University –
Engineering Sciences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2016.07.004
 JKSUES 216 No. of Pages 6
19 September 2016
Effect of by-product Steel Slag on the Engineering Properties of Clay Soils 5

1000
Unconfined compressive strength, kPa

900 Mecca street soil (Clay soil)

Opmum condion
800

700 compacon of 0% slag

600
Curve A : UCS = 0.357 (SC)2 - 21.73(SC) + 484
500 R² = 0.99
400 A Curve B: UCS= 0.211(SC)2 - 8.5(SC) + 280
300 R² = 1
200 B
100

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Slag content, %
Figure 9 Shear strength failure envelopes of the treated clay soil
Figure 6 Unconfined compressive strength of the treated clay
using different compaction curves.
soil with steel slag content.

22
Compaction curves of Mecca street soil 10
at different steel slage percentages
21 Mod. Prcoctor, Method C Mecca street soil (clay soil)
Soaked CBR at maximum dry density

CBR Value or Free Swell (%)

8
20

slag = 30%
Dry density, kN/m3

19 6 CBR = -0.0024(SC)2 + 0.1567(SC) + 2.8

CBR R² = 1
18
slag = 15%
4
17 slag = 0% FS = 0.0062(SC)2 - 0.3133(SC) + 6.3
R² = 1
16 2
Free Swell

15
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
14
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Slag content, %
Water content, %
Figure 10 Variation of CBR value and swell of the treated clay
Figure 7 Compaction curves of the clay soil at different steel slag soil with steel slag content.
content.
Special large size direct shear device was designed and manu- 192
factured. Fig. 8 shows the manufactured direct shear device 193
and its components. Consolidated Undrained (CU) tests were 194
performed at the optimum water content conditions of the cor- 195
responding clay soil-steel slag compaction curves with 0%, 196
15%, 30%, and 100% steel slag contents. The results in 197
Fig. 9 show that as the steel slag content increases, the cohe- 198
sion intercept decreases and the angle of internal friction 199
increases. The increase in angle of internal friction and 200
decrease in cohesion intercept with the increase in steel slag 201
content is due to the frictional nature (the grains are angular 202
and rough) of the steel slag, which can be observed clearly 203
for the case of 100% steel slag content. 204

4.5. California bearing ratio (CBR) test results 205

Figure 8 Manufactured large scale direct shear device. Soaked CBR tests (samples were emerged in water for 96 h 206
before testing) were conducted on the clay soil at the optimum 207
189 4.4. Direct shear test results water content conditions of the compaction curves of the 0%, 208
15%, and 30% steel slag content. The results in Fig. 10 show 209
190 Large scale direct shear tests (25 cm  25 cm cross-sectional that as the steel slag content increases, the CBR value 210
191 area) were conducted on clay soil passing 19 mm sieve size. increases. Also, this figure shows that the CBR value and the 211

Please cite this article in press as: Shalabi, F.I. et al., Effect of by-product steel slag on the engineering properties of clay soils. Journal of King Saud University –
Engineering Sciences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2016.07.004
 JKSUES 216 No. of Pages 6
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6 F.I. Shalabi et al.

212 free swell are in a reverse relation as the percentage of steel slag facturing Company for the financial support and Eng. Hussein 249
213 content increases. AL-Deki for his great help in performing the experimental 250
tests. 251
214 5. Conclusions
References 252

215 An experimental program was conducted to investigate the

216 effect of using by-product steel slag as a stabilizer on clay soils. Al-Malack, M., Abdullah, G., Al-Amoudi, O., Bukhari, A., 2014. 253
Stabilization of indigenous Saudi Arabian soils using fuel oil flyash. 254
217 In general, the results show that the steel slag can effectively be
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218 used to improve the engineering properties of clay with aware-
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219 ness to the percentages that should be used. Good statistical 2002. A Comparative evaluation of various additives used in the 257
220 correlations were derived between the intended engineering stabilization of expansive soils. Geotech. Test. J. 25, 199–209. 258
221 property and the steel slag content. Specifically, the following Al-Rawas, A.A., 2002. Microfabric and mineralogical studies on the 259
222 conclusions can be drawn from this study: stabilization of an expansive soil using cement by-pass dust and 260
some types of slags. Can. Geotech. J. 39, 1150–1167. 261
223 1. The increase in steel slag aggregate content decreases the Assa’d, A., Shalabi, F.I., 2004. Strength improvement of a compacted 262
224 plasticity and increases the maximum dry density of the highly plastic soil using fly ash, lime, and cement. Dirasat, Eng. Sci. 263

225 clay soils. 31, 205–214. 264

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227 tests, the cohesion intercept of the clay soil decreases with
Attom, M.F., Al-Sharif, M.M., 1998. Soil stabilization with burned 267
228 the increase in steel slag content while opposite behavior olive waste. Appl. Clay Sci. 13, 219–230. 268
229 is expected for the angle of internal friction. Basma, A., Al-Rawas, A., AL-Saadi, S., Al-Zadjali, T., 1998. 269
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232 of free swell and swell pressure decrease almost linearly Cokca, E., 2001. Use of class C fly ash for the stabilization of an 272
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234 4. Unconfined compressive strength of the treated clay soils Kumar, B.R., Sharma, R.S., 2004. Effect of fly ash on engineering 274

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239 slight change in UCS with slag content. expansive soils for use in construction. Appl. Clay Sci. 51, 348–352. 280
240 5. CBR value of the treated clay soil was found to increase Skempton, A.W., 1953. The colloidal activity of clays. In: Proceeding 281
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242 relation with the free swell value. Foundation Engineering I, pp. 57–61. 283
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246 Acknowledgments Wyoming Office of Homland Security, 2014. Wyoming Multi-hazard 291
Mitigation Plan, WY, USA. 292
293
247 The authors would like to thank both the Higher Council of
248 Science and Technology and the United Iron and Steel Manu-

Please cite this article in press as: Shalabi, F.I. et al., Effect of by-product steel slag on the engineering properties of clay soils. Journal of King Saud University –
Engineering Sciences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2016.07.004