Liners were proposed as subsoil contamination protection devices for waste disposal sites. In the rural environment, they can be used to construct pond bottoms for liquid waste treatment, but the construction needs to be quick and cheap. A good technical solution for these situations is the use of local soil compacted with low quantities of cement or lime, obtaining good properties for this purpose. These barriers need special care about their contraction behavior which may compromise its use. This work shows the results of contraction tests in sandy soil specimens and others stabilized with lime and with cement. Soil structure changes during cure time were checked using electronic scan microscopy. Results show maximum soil contraction of 0.648% for specimen with 14 days cure process. After twenty eight days of cure the contraction values were lower than 0.5%, which classifies the material as of low contraction. Electronic scan image shows significant material structure alteration up to seven days cure. Results show that studied mixtures had appropriate contraction behavior for liner usage.
stabilized soil liner; fine sandy soil; soil contraction
