A short review of the factors influencing lime-clay reactions

Many experimental and field trials have shown lime to be an effective clay stabilizer. As lime mainly affects clay minerals, it will come as no surprise that lime is more effective where clay content is higher. However, there is some evidence in the literature that the presence of high concentrations of organic matter in clay soil can lessen the chemical reaction between lime and clay minerals and have detrimental effects on engineering properties of soil. In particular, humic acid is a well-known constituent of organic matter with the potential to disrupt the soil stabilization process. Findings on the subject of lime stabilization by various researchers are presented in this section. The behaviour of lime stabilization is discussed at length with reference to clay, organic clay and peat soils