Abstract
Gypseous soils are common in several regions in the world including Iraq, where more than 28.6% of its surface is covered with this type of soil. This soil, with high gypsum content, causes different problems for construction and strategic projects. As a result of water flow through the soil mass, the permeability and chemical arrangement of these soils varies with time due to the solubility and leaching of gypsum. In this study, the soil of 36% gypsum content, was taken from one location about 100 km southwest of Baghdad, where the samples were taken from depths (0.5 - 1) m below the natural ground and mixed with (3%, 6%, 9%) of Copolymer and Novolac polymer to improve the engineering properties that include: collapsibility, permeability and compaction parameter. Results of experimental work showed noticeable improvement of collapsibility and permeability for the soil treated with polymer materials compared to untreated soil. Adding 3% of polymer (copolymer and novolac polymer) materials gave the best improvement in collapsibility which reached to (44.5 and 46%), respectively, in 3 hours. The improvement in permeability reached to 98.6% copolymer and 86.2% novolac polymer in 1 day.
