Efficiency of cement and lime in stabilizing the black cotton soil

Abstract

Black Cotton soil is a extremely problematic and sensitive to climatic changes. Due to the moisture content, the strength reduction in black cotton soil will be heavy. Stabilization is one of the conventional and extensively used processes to increase the engineering properties of soil. The investigation was carried out to study the increase in strength of black cotton soil using lime and cement. The experimental works were carried out using different proportions of lime (1%, 2% and 3%) and cement (2% and 4%). The Proctor Compaction Test and California Bearing Ratio were conducted to determine the exact proportion of additive at which the strength of Black Cotton soil will increase. The observed results from the compaction test revealed that the maximum dry density of soil increased by adding lime up to 2% due to the cementitious bond; further addition of lime led to a decrease. Also, the mixture of 2% cement with lime blended soils led to an increase in dry density due to the cementation action, which reduced the plasticity of soil, and when it exceeded 2% of cement, the density decreased. The percentage increase in the soil strength after adding additive was 76.54%. These results indicated that the lime, cement or a combination of both reacted as a good additive to stabilize the soil.