Comparison of permeabilities of quarry dust soil composite for application as eco friendly backfills

Abstract

The principal objective of this research is to compare permeability properties of soil after inclusion of quarry dust into it. Two categories of soils are subjected to Constant head permeability test to study the differences in their permeabilities (group 1: soil without RHA, N = 17; group 2: soil with 5 % RHA, N = 17). The pre-test power and confidence intervals were chosen as 80 % and 95 % respectively for sample size calculation. Test results show that the permeability of soil decreases as a result of inclusion of quarry dust. A significant difference (2 tailed) between two groups of soil exists as the value of p is 0.0001 (p < 0.05) for the permeability values obtained. The permeability of novel quarry dust soil composite meets the permeability requirements of the design codes. Hence quarry dust has the potential to be utilized as a novel material which can be added with sandy soils in place of costly good quality earth fills for sustainable construction of civil infrastructures.