Effect of electric arc and ladle furnace slags on the strength and swelling behavior of cement-stabilized expansive clay

The current research evaluated the effect of expansive clay stabilization using a combination of cement (0, 2, 5, 8%) with electric arc furnace slag (EAF) and ladle furnace slag (LF) ranging from 0 to 20% to reduce cement consumption as an environmentally friendly technique. To this end, a set of laboratory tests were conducted on the stabilized and unstabilized samples after 1, 3, 7, and 28 days of curing to evaluate the responses of agents on the clay sample. To evaluate the durability of the samples, they were subjected to 7 freeze–thaw cycles (F-T), so that each cycle lasted 48 h, 24 h for freezing at − 15 °C, and 24 h for thawing at 24 °C. The results show that the swelling of the clay sample can be fully eliminated upon addition of 5% cement and 10% EAF after 7 days of stabilization. Moreover, an improvement in the UCS value of the stabilized samples is observed over the time even for those exposed to F-T cycles, particularly in the cases of LF. Overall, it can be stated that the use of waste materials in soil improvement can play a very important role that needs to be addressed more and more as a suitable alternative to conventional additives.