Study of the physical and mechanical behavior of an asphalt-stabilized subgrade of the Rocafuerte - Tosagua road in the province of Manabí

Abstract

Within the province of Manabí we have different types of soils, among which clays are predominant, that is why before building any civil work, studies should be carried out where we can know the properties of the soil, in order to achieve its improvement through its stabilization. In this article we study the characteristics of a subgrade in its natural state and stabilize it with asphalt to determine the physical-mechanical behavior of the soil and thus establish differences between them after stabilization. This research has a quantitative experimental methodology that comprises three stages, the first one is the extraction of a sample along the Rocafuerte - Tosagua road, where differential changes were observed in the pavement structure with the presence of cracks of more than 10 centimeters of opening. In the second stage, the soil samples were tested in the soil laboratory under ASTM standards, including: moisture test (ASTM D2216), Atterberg Limits (ASTM D4318), Fine Series Granulometry (ASTM D422), Proctor test (ASTM D 1557-78) and CBR bearing capacity (ASTM D-1883). The tests were carried out both for the natural soil sample and for the sample stabilized with asphalt, in percentages of 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% and 15%, and finally, in the third stage, comparisons were made between the physical and mechanical characteristics of the subgrade in its natural state and that stabilized with asphalt, demonstrating that with the addition of asphalt a considerable increase in the maximum dry density and CBR was obtained in the samples.