How does ionic soil stabilization work?
Soil is comprised of fine particles of clays and silts and these particles, due to their mineralogical composition, have an excess of negative ions (anions), which attract positive ions (cations) of water. This reaction results in making this water adhere to form pellicular water. This clay is unsuitable for construction as the absorbed water acts as a lubricant on the soil particles thus preventing compaction of the soil.
RoadPacker products, due to their chemical compositions, have enormous potential ionic exchange capacity. When small quantities of RoadPacker Plus, for example, is added to the water, it activates the ions H+ and (OH-), ionizing the water, which then vigorously exchanges its electrical charges with the soil particles. This forces the pellicular water to break its electrochemical bond with the soil particles to become free water, which can then drain from the soil through gravity or evaporation.
This electrochemical reaction of ionic exchange is permanent and irreversible. Once the pellicular water separates from the fines in an irreversible electrochemical process and drains as free water, the soil particles settle and align themselves in such a way that they attract each other. As such, a higher densification of the soil mass is achieved eliminating all the voids.
Expansive clay soils have been called the “Hidden Disaster”. Our solutions can be used to avoid this in the pre-construction stage and to address the problem soils even after construction.
RoadPacker Solutions a company that is dedicated to moving the science of soil stabilization forward. We specialize in providing state-of-the-art solutions for swelling clays and dust abatement. Instead of removing and replacing soil at great expense to your pocket book and the environment, we simply treat the problem soils at the molecular level with an ionic chemical soil stabilization process that is not only permanent, but also faster, less expensive and more environmentally friendly than the methods used in the past.
Why put a band-aid on it, when advances in science have made it possible to fix the actual problem…the soil!
