EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON STABILISATION OF

EXPANSIVE BLACK COTTON SOIL

JAI PRAKASH, NARENDRA NATH, RAHUL POONIA
STUDENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING,
POORNIMA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING (JAIPUR-302022).
Email: 2019pcecejai21@poornima.org ; 2019pcecenarendra34@poornima.org
; 2020pcecerahul806@poornima.org

ABSTRACT:
As the population increases, human activities such as construction activities
(house constructions, buildings, infrastructures, etc.), and industrialization
(metal industries, cement industries, etc.) will grow. As a result, construction
can be done on expansive soils such as black cotton soils and at the same time
a lot of waste products are generated by the industries.
These expansive soils have the problem of swelling and shrinkage, volume
changes, settlements, rolling of soils, etc can be seen. These problems can be
eliminated by intermixing these soils with the waste materials generated by
industries and increasing the properties of soil like shear strength, liquid limit,
plastic limit, CBR, UCS, etc.
These waste products’ advantages are that they are easily available in bulk,
inert, cheap, etc.
The experimental studies are done on the black cotton soil to enhance the
properties and performance of the same when added with different materials
(waste material of many operations) under different proportions.

INTRODUCTION:
Foundations in expansive soils such as black cotton soils undergo many
problems such as alternate swelling and shrinkage during wetting and drying
by the action of seasonal moisture variations, settlement of foundation which
is caused by volume changes causing cracks in the structure, land sliding, etc.
all these problems make the construction costlier in soils like as black cotton
soil. The problem can be eliminated to some extent by intermixing it with
stabilizing material which may be minerals or end products of industrial
processes.
Some of these stabilizing materials are lime, cement, stone dust, local waste,
molasses, bagasse ash, brick dust, waste paper sludge, asphalt material, rice
husk ash, granular blast furnace slag, etc.

MATERIAL USED: -
1. LIME: it is a natural binding material obtained from the calcination of
limestone. Calcination is the heating of an ore up to redness. It has a binding
property that works as binding material in soil when used as a soil stabilization
material.
2. STONE DUST: it is the dust that is obtained in the crusher during the
crushing of stones in stone crushers. These stones’ dust is inert and has binding
properties.
3. BAGGASSE ASH: it is pulpy, fibrous waste left over sugarcane when the juice
is squeezed out from sugarcane and can be used as the soil stabilization
material. These are easily available at the jaggery farms where production of
the jaggery is done by the cane.
4. RICE HUSK ASH: it is the waste product left over when the rice husk is burnt
either in agriculture fields or rice industries. It is very much used in soil
stabilization. These are easily available at agricultural farms where rice is
grown.
5. GRANULAR BLAST FURNANCE SLAG: this is the blast furnace waste that is
heavier and found on the bottom of the furnace. This is rich in ferrous
minerals, lime, and silica, and is used as soil stabilization material in cement
industries, etc.

METHODOLOGY: -
The problematic black cotton soil which is treated with different stabilizing
materials such as lime, cement, molasses, bagasse ash, brick dust, asphalt
material, granular blast furnace slag, etc. is then tested with different
proportions generally in the range of 0 to 12 percentage with raw black cotton
soil over the parameters are as follows:
 1. Liquid limit (LL)
2. Plastic limit (PL)
3. Maximum dry density (MDD) & Optimum moisture content (OMC)
4. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS)
5. California bearing ratio (CBR)
The results of all these tests are to be examined and correct proportions are to
be decided for better stabilization of expansive black cotton soil.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS:
The results of this study based on different tests can be examined in the form
of graphs and tables as follows:

1. Liquid limit (LL)

LIQUID LIMIT(%)
lime+cement stone dust fly ash bagasse ash

60.00%

50.00%

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
C at eg o r y 1 C at ego r y 2 C at ego r y 3 C at eg o r y 4

2. Plastic limit (PL)

 plasti c limit(%)
lime+cement stone dust fly ash bagasse ash
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
C at ego r y 1 C at eg o r y 2 C at ego r y 3 C at eg o r y 4

3. Optimum moisture content (OMC)

omc(%)
lime+cement stone dust fly ash bagasse ash
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
C at eg o r y 1 C at ego r y 2 C at ego r y 3 C at eg o r y 4

4. Maximum dry density (MDD)

MDD(gm/cc)
lime+cement stone dust fly ash bagasse ash
1.85
1.8
1.75
1.7
1.65
1.6
1.55
1.5
C at ego r y 1 C at eg o r y 2 C at ego r y 3 C at eg o r y 4
 5. California bearing ratio (CBR)
ucs(%)
lime+cement stone dust fly ash bagasse ash
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
C at ego r y 1 C at eg o r y 2 C at eg o r y 3 C at ego r y 4

6. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS)

Chart Title
lime+cement stone dust fly ash bagasse ash
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
C at ego r y 1 C at eg o r y 2 C at ego r y 3 C at ego r y 4

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS:

Sr. Admixture optimum Rate per Soil admixture Cost of

no %age tonne quantity(10m3) quantity admixture
. (G=2.68) (tonne) per tonne
of soil
1 Lime + 9+3 (1200-1500) + 26800 kg 2.412+0.804 244094.4-
cement (300000- 325218
400000)
2 Stone dust 6 1100-1200 26800 kg 1.608 1768.8-
1929.6
3 Fly ash 15 1300-1400 26800 kg 4.020 5226-
5628
4 Bagasse ash 9 900-1000 26800 kg 2.412 2170.8-
2412

CONCLUSION:
 The best stabilizing material is lime + cement having an optimum
percentage of (9+3) but its cost is very high (244094.4-325218 RS per
tonne) thereby it can be used for important works only.
This material is also easily available in abundant amounts as it is an
industrial product.
 For less important works stone dust is used having an optimum
percentage
Of 6% with a reasonable cost of 1768.8-1929.6 RS per tonne of black
cotton soil.
This material is available during the crushing or quarrying of the stones
as a result not available in abundant quantity at all places.

REFERENCES: