Improvement of Gypsum Soil Properties by using Novolac polymer

Abstract

This paper is a tamped to improve the engineering properties of gypseous soil by adding novolac polymer. The soil  samples  brought from the west of Karbala city with 36% of gypsum content. The research was carried out by adding a different percentage of novolac polymer (3%, 6%, 9% w/W) respectively and comparing the results with other samples treated with cement in the same percentages. The targeted engineering properties are permeability, shear strength, and collapsibility. The results showed that 3% w/W of novolac gives the best improving in collapsibility which is improved to 57.8 while 6% w/W of novolac improved both the bearing capacity and the permeability which improved to (25.2  and 86.2% ) respectively.