Impact of wetting/drying cycles on the hydromechanical behaviour of a treated soil

The positive effects of lime or cement treatment could be altered by weathering in the very long term. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of wetting/drying cycles on the strength and the hydraulic conductivity of a compacted soil treated with lime and cement. Compacted specimens were cured for 90 days before being exposed up to twelve wetting and drying cycles. A special concern of the study was the experimental method to impose the wetting and drying cycles. Two protocols were employed: one relied on relative humidity control to dry the samples, while the other was based on oven drying. The impact of the cycles was quantified by comparing the performance of the samples exposed to the cycles to the performance of the unsolicited samples. The results showed that the cycles induced a major alteration of the strength of the samples, with both methods. This degradation is associated to a significant increase of the hydraulic conductivity of the samples with the number of cycles.