Mechanical characteristics and water stability of silt solidified by incorporating lime, lime and cement mixture, and SEU-2 binder

•SEU-2 binder yielded higher strength.•Optimum lime content was optimized as 8%.•SEU-2 binder stabilized soil possessed superior water stability. Silt has a poor geotechnical performance. In this study, an investigation on silt solidification was performed by incorporating lime, mixture of lime and cement (LC), and a self-developed lab-made binder (named SEU-2 binder). The properties of solidified silt cured in standard curing and immersion curing for 7, 28 and 90 days, respectively, were determined in relation to unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and water stability. The solidification mechanism was further analyzed by the technologies of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Results revealed that the UCS of lime solidified silt had an optimum value when the dosage of lime was 8%, while the UCS of LC and SEU-2 binder solidified silt increased with an increase of LC and SEU-2 binder content. The water stability coefficient (WSC) of lime solidified silt increased first and then stabilized, whereas the WSC of LC solidified silt hardly changed with water curing time. However, WSC of SEU-2 binder solidified silt has insignificant change with SEU-2 binder content. With the increase of binder content, the WSC of lime solidified silt increased first and then decreased, and the WSC of LC solidified silt hardly changed. However, for SEU-2 binder solidified silt, WSC showed no obvious correlation with SEU-2 binder content. Generally, SEU-2 binder solidified silt had superior mechanical properties relative to that solidified by lime or LC, which can be further explained by SEM and XRD analyses.