STABILIZATION OF EXPANSIVE SOIL TREATED WITH BARITES POWDER AND ALUMINUM CHLORIDE

Expansive soils are basically susceptible to detrimental volumetric changes with changesin moisture content causes distortions to the structures constructed on these soils.Keeping in view the research findings outlined above, in the present work, experimentation was carried out to investigate the efficacy of different additives, viz., Aluminium Chloride and Barites powder, in stabilizing the Expansive Soil, thereby, improving the strength, swell characteristics of the expansive soil. A systematic methodical process was followed, involving experimentation in the laboratory under controlled conditions.The main objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of homogeneous layer formed by mixing the Barites Powder and Aluminum Chloride chemical (AlCl3) with the expansive soil. In this paper, the test results such as Atterberg limits, compaction, California Bearing Ratio, and Differential Free Swell obtained on expansive soils mixed with Aluminum Chloride (AlCl3) in varying percentages of 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0% of the expansive soil and at each percentage of chemical, addition of Barites Powder in percentages of 10%, 20%, 30%. From the results, it is observed that at optimum percentage, i.e., 1.5% AlCl3 and 20% Barites Powder, there is a marked improvement in the strength of soil.