Influence of the Sawdust on the Behavior of Clay Soils

Abstract

Soil treatment with many different materials such as lime, fly ash, cement with bentonite and chemical injection was used to embrace good soil. The soil characterizations led to choose the best additive material which improves its behavior. In this article, the sawdust waste was added to a swelling soil to upgrade a stabilized its specification. Building traditional houses in some areas of the Egyptian countryside uses clay mixed with sawdust as cemented materials. The sawdust has used in this paper with different percentages 0, 1, 3, and 5% by weight of the clay soil. Many tests have been used such as index, strength and swelling specifications to study the behavior of clay- sawdust mixtures. The result indicated that the indirect tensile strength for air-dried samples increased, by increasing the sawdust ratio around 1.75%, and the swelling potential also decreased to about 32%.