Experimental evaluation of stabilising potential of brick dust in clay soils
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Date
2021-12
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Migration of a large number of people towards cities has resulted in urbanization and construction of big engineering structures. Consequently, for accommodation of huge crowd enough suitable land is needed for engineering activities which can be fulfilled only when the soil in that area is competent enough to withstand the load impacted on it. Generally, the soils are classified as clayey and sandy type. The latter formed by physical weathering barely poses any threat, whereas clay formed by chemical weathering, is considered as a problematic soil because of its unpredictable behavioural changes. Construction on clayey soil is one of the biggest challenging tasks for engineers. Numerous studies have been done in the past to bring out a sustainable solution to this issue. The solution they have come up with is soil stabilization which is augmenting the soil properties by adding different additives in it. Many researchers have tried to modify the geotechnical characteristics of clayey soil utilizing different additives namely, lime and cement. However, the cost of such materials in recent years has risen demanding for a better alternative and cost-effective material. Many researchers after doing their critical evaluation suggested brick dust as an alternative to other expensive additives. Hence from economic perspective, brick dust is a cheaper alternative to conventional materials. India is the second largest manufacturer of brick and tons of brick waste generated each year goes in unplanned way. This waste occupies arable land creating environmental concerns. The problems could be solved by using this material as a soil stabilizer. Brick dust is a by-product obtained from brick kilns. It has greater ability to reduce the swelling potential of clayey soil (Sikha and Kumar, 2017). Brick dust is used as a substitute for sand in concrete and mortar and has almost same functions as that of sand and adds some strength and hydraulicity (Rather et al., 2019). In previous studies, utilizing brick dust as an additive is mainly done to evaluate the compaction characteristics, index properties, consistency and very limited investigations have been carried out on shear strength, consolidation and permeability characteristics of clayey soil. In view of the above, the main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of brick dust (introducing in varying percentages) on consolidation, shear strength and permeability characteristics of clayey soil. In addition, laboratory experiments like consistency limit tests, compaction test, unconfined compression test and CBR tests are also performed with an objective to reach for better results and conclusions. For the accomplishment of objectives, a thorough investigation of utilizing brick dust as additive has been planned. Firstly, brick dust was collected from Brick Kiln, located at Rudrapur, Uttarakhand. Soil was procured from the campus of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand). The overall experimental programme was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, laboratory examination of soil was carried out. In the second and last phase, laboratory experiments were performed on soil mixed with different percentages of brick dust (i.e., 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%). After analysing the results obtained from various laboratory experiments, it was concluded that addition of brick dust as additive is satisfactory when mixed with clayey soil. Plasticity index was observed to decrease from 14.37% to 8.45% with increment in percentage of brick dust from 0 to 40% and beyond this a non-plastic behaviour of soil was observed. Proctor results reflect that optimum moisture content decreases from 16.0% to 10.0% while maximum dry density increases from 16.28 kN/m3 to 18.93 kN/m3 on increasing the brick dust percentage from 0 to 50%. The values of un-soaked and soaked CBR increased on addition of brick dust. The stress at failure increased up to 30% addition of brick dust and afterwards it displays a decreasing trend. The compression parameters exhibit decreasing trend on addition of brick dust. The value of cohesion decreases whereas angle of internal friction increases. The permeability of samples was increased when brick dust was mixed up to 50%. These results were compared to the results of prior studies conducted by a number of researchers, which revealed that the observations were in reasonably good accord.