AN EFFICACY OF PALM FIBERS AND BAGGASE ASH ON STRENGTH IMPROVEMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF CACL2 STABILIZED BLACK COTTON SOIL

Expansive soils, such as black cotton soils, are basically susceptible to detrimental volumetric changes, with changes in moisture. This behavior of soil is attributed to the presence of mineral montmorillonite, which has an expanding lattice. Among several techniques adopted to overcome the problems posed by expansive soils, CaC𝑙2 stabilization gained prominence during the past few decades due to its abundance and adaptability. Various remedial measures like soil replacement, moisture control, pre-wetting, CaC𝑙2 stabilization have been practiced with varying degrees of success. However, these techniques suffer from certain limitations with respect to their adaptability, like longer time periods required for pre-wetting the highly plastic clays, difficulty in constructing the ideal moisture barriers, pulverization and mixing problems in case of CaC𝑙2 stabilization and high cost for hauling suitable refill material for soil replacement etc. Many researchers, all over the world are working, to evolve more effective and practical treatment methods, to solve the problems caused to pavements laid on expansive soils. Investigations on soil stabilization revealed with some other availability materials like Bagasse ash, quarry-dust, CaCl2, Palm fibers, waste plastics, etc., may be effectively used. Keeping in view the research findings outlined above, in the present work, it is attempted to study the effect of Bagasse ash, CaC𝑙2 and Palm fiber on the strength characteristics of expansive soil. The research work yielded that the materials Bagasse ash, CaC𝑙2, and Palm fibers had shown promising influence on the properties of problematic expansive soil, thereby giving a two-fold advantage in improving a problematic soil and also solving a problem of waste disposal. The present study deals with testing of a problematic expansive soil with the aim to investigate its engineering properties and further stabilize it to be suitable for foundation constructions or as sub-grades. From the present study, it can be summarized that the materials Bagasse ash, CaC𝑙2, and Palm fibers had shown promising influence on the properties of problematic expansive soil, thereby giving a two- fold advantage in improving a problematic expansive soil and also solving a problem of waste disposal.