Mechanical properties of discarded shield residue improved by calcium carbide slag and fly ash as subgrade filling

To utilize discarded shield residue and alleviate the shortage of subgrade filling, industrial wastes such as calcium carbide slag (CCS) and fly ash (FA) were considered to enhance the mechanical properties of the shield residue. A series of laboratory tests, including California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests, moisture content tests, pH tests, water stability tests, and dry-wet cycles tests were performed on discarded shield residue with additive contents. The results show that the UCS and CBR values enhanced significantly with the increase in curing time. However, the moisture content and pH of the stabilized soil exhibited a decreasing trend. The early UCS of CCS-FA stabilized soil is slightly lower than that of QL-FA stabilized soil. After 60 curing days, all stabilized soil exhibited a UCS value exceeding 1.9 MPa. In addition, the CBR values of CCS-FA stabilized soil were more than 8 times higher than those of the original shield residue. Furthermore, the water stability of CCS-FA stabilized soil is slightly better than QL-FA stabilized soil, especially at 7 days and 14 days. As for dry-wet cycles test, after the fifth cycle, the CCS-FA stabilized soil maintained overall integrity. The CCS can effectively replace QL to enhance the mechanical properties of shield residue as subgrade filling.