Enviro-Safe Stabilization of Black Cotton Soil—Experimental Study with Optimal Proportion of Stabilizer

Abstract

Black cotton soil (BCS) is a typical expansive soil having the property of excessive shrinking and swelling based on the variation in its moisture content. Expansive soils are usually prone to severe volumetric variations with an increase in the load intensity of overlying superstructure, making it less preferred as a founding media. In this paper, the exploratory outcomes acquired on enhancements in the quality of expansive soil in laboratory tests when stabilized with varying proportions of lime in addition to coir fibers are investigated. The test outcomes, such as Compaction test, California Bearing Ratio (CBR), Unconfined Compressive Strength test (UCS) were obtained on black cotton soil prior to stabilization, then with addition of lime at different proportions by weight of soil—0, 2, 4, 6 percentage after which coir was varied at 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1 percentage keeping optimum percentage lime content at constant value. The experimental results clearly indicate the sensitivity of the BCS with respect to above-mentioned engineering properties, in relation to the constituent proportion of stabilizing agents and the percentage of stabilizer beyond optimum (4%—lime and 0.5%—coir fiber) is seen to have alleviated the beneficial influence of stabilizer on BCS.KeywordsExpansive soilsEnhancementsStabilizedOptimum percentageSensitivity