Solidification/stabilization (S/S) is one of the most effective methods of dealing with heavy metal contaminated soils. The effects of cyclic wetting and drying on solidified/stabilized contaminated soils were investigated. A series of test program, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test, TCLP leaching test and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) test, were performed on lead and zinc contaminated soils solidified/stabilized by fly ash. Test results show that UCS and the leaching characteristics of heavy metal ions of S/S contaminated soils are significantly improved with the increase of fly ash content. UCS of S/S soils firstly increases with the increase of the times of drying and wetting cycles, after reaching the peak, it decreases with it. When the pollutant content is lower (1 000 mg/kg), the TCLP concentration first slightly decreases under cyclic drying and wetting, then increases, but the change is minor. The TCLP concentration is higher under a high pollutant content of 5 000 mg/kg, and increases with the increase of the times of drying and wetting cycles. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) test are consistent with UCS tests and TCLP leaching tests, which reveals the micro-mechanism of the variations of engineering properties of stabilized contaminated soils after drying and wetting cycles.
The improvement of question soils with cement shows great technical, economic and environmental advantages. And interest in introducing electrical resistivity measurement to assess the quality of cement treated soils has increased markedly recently due to its economical, non-destructive, and relatively non-invasive advantages. This work aims to quantify the effect of cement content (aw), porosity (nt), and curing time(T) on the electrical resistivity (p) and unconfined compression strength (UCS) of cement treated soil. A series of electrical resistivity tests and UCS tests of cement treated soil specimen after various curing periods were carried out. A modified Archie empirical law was proposed taking into account the effect of cement content and curing period on the electrical resistivity of cement treated soil. The results show that nt/(aw·T) and nt/(aw·T^1/2) ratio are appropriate parameters to assess electrical resistivity and UCS of cement treated soil, respectively. Finally, the relationship between UCS and electrical resistivity was also established.