Investigating characteristics of expansive soil of Rajkot modified with flyash and nanolime

Abstract

Rajkot, Gujarat's westernmost city, has a severe problem with expansive soils. Nanotechnology now has the ability to significantly alter the physical and chemical properties of materials by introducing only a small amount of nanomaterials. Given the enormous potential of nanomaterials, nanolime in combination with class-F flyash was used in this work to try to stabilise the soil. To begin, nanolime is made using a wet chemical technique. Second, Suyog suppliers in Ankleshwar provides commercially available class-F flyash. Various combinations of these two elements were explored to investigate the effect of putting these two components in the expansive soil of Rajkot city. Finally, to control swell–shrink behaviour, the optimal dose of these two mixes was studied. The dosage of class-F flyash used is 20 to 60 percent by dry mass of the expansive soil, with a steady increase of 20 percent. Furthermore, nanolime dose is 0.5 and 1 percent by mass of Rajkot's expansive soil. The samples were made by dry combining the aforesaid materials, soaking them in water, and allowing them to mature for 3 to 28 days. The impacts of stabilisation were investigated using soil metrics with expansive features such as atterberg's limits, free swell index, and swell pressure. It was discovered that using 1% nanolime in combination with 40–60 percent class-F flyash can reduce plasticity by 70 percent, swell pressure by 95 percent, and increase shrinkage limit by 60 percent making free swell index zero. As a result, nanolime combined with class-F flyash is successful in converting expansive Rajkot soil to non-swelling soil.