Experimental Study on Locally Available Expansive Soil by using Kota Stone Slurry with Coir Fibre

Abstract

Various states of India have large deposits of expansive soil. These large deposits of expansive soil are very problematic for construction purpose because of its uncertain swelling and shrinkage behaviour. This kind of behaviour of expansive soil generates major uplift stresses on the structure built on it, and it may cause the failure of the structure. This uncertain behaviour of expansive soil is due to the presence of the montmorillonite mineral. It becomes a tedious task to deal with these difficulties for construction of structures. Soil stabilization is done to overcome these kinds of problems. This research is aimed to stabilize the expansive soil with KSS powder and coir fibre. The slurry powder developed by the kota stone industries during the cutting and finishing process is an industrial waste. This waste is produced in slurry form and it is dumped into the lands and it becomes powder in dry state and then it is easily transported by air and other medium. This waste is hazardous for land fertility as well as for human health. The purpose of using KSS powder is to reuse the waste in an efficient way. The coir fibre was also used to improve the engineering behaviour of expansive soil. Coir fibre is a natural waste material. In this research work Kota stone slurry is adopted in powder form to stabilize the expansive soil in the proportion 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. The optimum results were recorded at 15% KSS powder. Further coir fibre was also added to improve the engineering properties of expansive soil to the mix specimen of expansive soil and 15% KSS powder, in the proportion as 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%. The optimum results were recorded at the addition of 1.5% coir fibre.