Immediate and long-term effects of lime and wheat straw on consistency characteristics of clayey soil

Abstract

Clayey soils with swelling and shrinkage characteristics have been major causes for many problems in roads, buildings and other civil engineering infrastructure in various areas of Pakistan, particularly where there are several patches of such soils on either side of Indus River. As the consistency characteristics are directly related with the variation of moisture content; therefore, this study was explicitly focused to investigate the effect of lime and wheat straw on the consistency characteristics of clayey soils with relatively high swelling and shrinkage characteristics. The consistency test results indicate that by the increase in lime content there is a decrease in the plasticity index of soil; for instance, 10% lime content resulted to 59% decrease in the plasticity index value. On the other hand; the addition of wheat straw resulted in a significant increase in the plasticity index; for instance, 10% wheat straw content resulted to a 120% increase in the plasticity index. This study has further shown that the shrinkage and swelling of clayey soils which resulting to several problems in the civil engineering infrastructures may adequately be managed through mixing an appropriate amount of lime and wheat straw as soil stabilizing agent for both immediate and long-term effects.