Investigation of sample preparation method of direct shear tests to determine the shear strength soil treatment with lime

One of the most useful procedure to soil stabilization is lime. Soil improvement using lime is a quick and simple approach which could be included in large and small projects. The objective of soil ‘Improvement’ with quicklime is to achieve an immediate reaction، which significantly strengthens the soil due to the removal of moisture and a chemical change in clays. In order to do parametric study on the influence of the lime on shear strength preparing the samples is important. In this paper، in addition to considering method of samples preparation، effect of lime content، water content and processing time on the shear strength of clay using direct shear test is investigated. The results indicate that method of samples preparation is effective and is identified that there is an optimum lime and moisture content which maximize shear strength.