Performance Evaluation of Expansive Soil Treated with Sodium Silicate and Fly Ash
摘要
In case of road projects and other construction works, we mostly deal with the process of soil stabilization to improve the natural soil. In such cases, it is very crucial to identify the material properties involved in the process of mixing and the final outcome after it. Moreover, it is necessary to find out how the material is going to perform after treatment. The proposed chemical stabilization was employed on locally available expansive soil, i.e., black cotton soil using sodium silicate and fly ash. The dosages for treatment are selected as 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%, and 12.5% for fly ash and sodium silicate respectively. A series of laboratory unconfined compressive strength and California bearing ratio tests were performed on treated soil samples to obtain optimum percentage of both the stabilizers. From the test results, it was found that optimum percentage of fly ash and sodium silicate was 15% and 5% respectively. Further, the samples were prepared at optimum dosages of fly ash, and sodium silicate and tested for varying curing periods of (1, 7, 14, 21, and 28) days. The results of treated soil samples were compared with untreated soil and found that both UCS and CBR values were improved with the addition of sodium silicate and fly ash.