Improvement of the performance of water-sensitive geomaterials using hydrophobic additives

公路和铁路基地等地质结构容易受到水的破坏，因为它们很容易与大气和浅水层相互作用。在交通荷载作用下，当土工材料的强度和刚度受到持续的水分变化的影响时，土工结构的破坏会以开裂、车辙和粗糙度的形式发生。如果能找到有效的方法，尽量减少这种损害，就可以为社会节省大量的成本。本项目提出研究一种新技术，其中使用疏水聚合物添加剂的混合物来增加岩土材料在不同湿度水平和交通载荷下的稳定性。

Geo-structures such as road and railway bases suffer from water induced damage because they readily interact with the atmosphere and shallow water tables. Under traffic loading, damage to geo-structures occurs as cracking, rutting and roughness, when the strength and stiffness of the geomaterials are compromised by on-going moisture variations. Substantial cost savings to the community can be made if effective methods can be found to minimise such damage. This project proposes to study a novel technique, in which blends of hydrophobic polymer additives are used to increase the stability of geomaterials subjected to varying moisture levels and traffic loading.