Engineering characteristics of plate-like saline soil in Xinjiang

The engineering characteristics of plate-like saline soil were analysed on the basis of laboratory particle size analysis test,water content(mass percentage) limit test,compaction test,strength test,deformation test and swelling test.Analysis result shows that plate-like saline soil is mainly made up of gravelly soil and has different gradations resulted from sampling locations.The ranges of plasticity index,maximum dry density and optimum moisture content are 0.57～3.20,2.22～2.25 g·cm-3 and 5.7%～6.2% respectively.Under natural condition,its maximum unconfined compressive strength is 28.6 MPa,and it has the characteristics of rocks and belongs to rock salt.Plate-like saline soil has low compressibility and meets the deformation index requirement of highway subgrade.Under the change of water and heat environment,with the increase of salinity,the coefficient of collapsibility and salt-expansion stress increase,and the salt-expansion temperature reaches ahead of time as the sodium sulfate content increases.Salt expansion can be controlled by vehicle load,which reduces the engineering disease resulted from salt expansion.10 tabs,5 figs,21 refs.