Experimental study of the effect of alkali contamination on geo-mechanical properties of the soil

Abstract

As a civil engineer, we all are quite aware that the soils expansive in nature are not at all suitable as a material for foundation engineering purposes. Due to this very nature, geotechnical failures in expansive soil have been observed at various sites. Seasonal variations are responsible for swelling and shrinking that causes large volume changes in the expansive soil. Similar effects are also shown by the interaction of non-expansive soil with industrial sewage or effluent. It is a fact that engineering behavior of soil can be changed with the interaction of alkali. Alkali base solutions are discharged into the soil mass from differs industries, for example, paint and dyeing, paper manufacturing ventures, cotton factories and aluminum factories, etc. In this paper, an attempt has been made to investigate the effect of alkali interaction on engineering behavior of soil. For this, the samples of normal soil and contaminated soil were collected from Hindalco Industries Ltd., Renukoot (U.P.). The contamination was due to caustic liquor. The mechanical properties of normal soil and contaminated soil samples were investigated in laboratory by performing various geo-mechanical tests like specific gravity, grain size distribution, Atterberg’s limit, compaction characteristic, permeability, free swelling index, swelling pressure, shear strength parameter and consolidation characteristic.