Possibilities of the Using of Drilling Mud in Road Construction

Abstract

Drilling cuttings are toxic for the environment (III-IV hazard class) due to the drilling mud used and initial properties of the drilled rock. One of the promising areas is the processing of drilling cuttings to obtain a mixture that is non-toxic and can be used for road construction. Road design requires calculation of a number of parameters which provide durability, reliability, and frost resistance. The road layers made of drilling cuttings must efficiently resist shear stress and fractures in the pavement.

One of the main indicators that must be met in the road design is water consumptions. This indictor is closely related to the frost resistance of road pavement. The less water consumption is the more cycles of freezing and thawing the road pavement will endure. In this study, by mixing the drilling cuttings and special additives, the mixture of drilling slime-cement was obtained which after curing successfully endures the atmosphere influence. In this paper, the most optimal compositions of slime-cement with the use of lime and hydrophobic additives for the layers of pavement are presented. The influence of cement, lime, and hydrophobic additives on the strength and water absorption of slime-cement was investigated experimentally. Using the STATISTICA software package, the values of the factors when the maximum strength and minimum water absorption are achieved are specified. The conclusions provide quantitative indicators based on the results of these studies.