Improvement of Properties of Black Cotton Soil Using Potassium Chloride and Micro Fine Slag

Abstract

The improvement of soil properties is one of the main branches of geotechnical science that has been considered by researchers in different countries. In developing country like India due to the remarkable development in road infrastructure, soil stabilization has become the major issue in construction activity. Stabilization is an unavoidable for the purpose of highway and runway construction, stabilization denotes improvement in both strength and durability which are related to performance. Stabilization is a method of processing available materials for the production of low-cost road design and construction. Fine clayey soils properties due to high swelling necessitate the need to improve its geotechnical properties. When the construction work is done over problematic black cotton soil it has risks of substantial settlements, heave and low bearing capacity. This project is an investigation carried out to study the effect of KCl, Ultra fine slag on engineering properties of the Black Cotton Soils. The properties of stabilized soil such as compaction characteristics, consistency limits were evaluated and their variations with varying KCl content is evaluated. An optimum proportion of KCl is found and mixed with varying proportions of microfine slag. The interpretation of test results leading to various conclusion and recommendation on the use of combination of KCl and microfine slag in soil stabilization to counter the difficulty posed by black cotton soil for subgrade material is discussed.