A theoretical and experimental study on the behaviour of lignosulfonate-treated sandy silt

The effectiveness of an environmentally friendly stabilising agent for soil, namely, lignosulfonate was examined through a series of laboratory tests. A simple bounding surface plasticity model was developed to capture the bonding effects induced by lignosulfonate. One of the appealing aspects of the model is that it can incorporate the mechanical behaviour of the bonded soil during shearing, including the brittle and ductile failure modes. Validity of the model was verified by experimental results of lignosulfonate-treated soils under different stress path conditions. The mechanical behaviour of chemically treated soil was adequately captured by the model.