RESISTIVITY MEASUREMENTS ON LIGHTWEIGHT CEMENTED SOILS FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING ON TREATED EMBANKMENTS

In this work, a new methodological approach based on electrical resistivity measurements is proposed to characterize the physical-chemical properties of cemented lightweight soils (LWCS) and to verify their mechanical performance. The electrical resistivity parameter, indeed, strongly depends on petrophysical properties (e.g., porosity, water content, grain size, orientation and pore structure) of soils, suggesting that it can be very helpful for analysing the physical-chemical behavior of LWCS. Therefore, the purpose has been to implement a non-destructive investigation technique to be applied for monitoring the physical and mechanical properties of LWCS. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been validated by resistivity laboratory tests on lightweight cemented soil samples made with different amounts of foam. Our results show for the first time a possible correlation between the effect of the cementation products and the time variations of the resistivity values suggesting that the electrical resistivity could be one of the relevant parameters for in situ monitoring of LWCS to control the development of the cementation products, and the subsequent suitability of the treated material.