ARABIAN JOURNAL OF GEOSCIENCES, vol.14, no.5, 2021 (SCI-Expanded)
In this study, pavement subgrade soils were stabilized with two difference types of waste marble powder, and California bearing ratio (CBR) tests were conducted to evaluate the improvement in their bearing capacity. To this end, highly plastic silt (MH) and highly plastic clay (CH) layers were used as the subgrade soil material. A number of unsoaked CBR tests were conducted on the test samples by adding a varying percentage of calcitic marble powder (CMP) and dolomitic marble powder (DMP) using different freeze-thaw cycles (0, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 11 cycles) and curing times (0, 7, 30, and 60 days) in the laboratory. The waste marble powder ratios were taken as 5, 10, 20, 30, and 50% by the dry weight of each soil specimen. SEM and energy dispersive X-ray (EDAX) analyses were also performed on the specimens to determine the efficiency of the marble powders. According to the comparison based on the CBR values, the inclusion of an appropriate amount and type of waste marble powder positively affected the bearing capacity of the subgrade soil samples regardless of curing time and number of freeze-thaw cycles. Moreover, both curing time and freezing-thawing cycles influenced the CBR values depending on the waste marble powder type and content and subgrade soil type.