Stabilization of Black Cotton Soil using Salts and Their Comparative Analysis

  Swarna Swetha Kolaventi,  Sanjay Gokul Venigalla,  D.Rakesh

Black cotton soil is a typical expansive soil which loses its strength in presence of water resultant in swelling of the soil and in the absence of water it shows multiple cracks due to shrinkage. Black cotton soils cover about 20% of land area in India and are predominantly located in the Deccan trap covering the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. It is also called as regur. Most Indian Black cotton soils are rich in Montmorillonate, a type of clay mineral. This mineral is responsible for swell-shrink behavior of the soil. The soil varies in color from grey to deep black. In the beginning it was considered that black color was due to the presence of humidified organic matter. Subsequent work has however, shown that the color is due to small concentration of titanium oxide. Soil stabilization is a process in which the bearing power of the soil can be increased by the use of controlled compaction; proportioning and the addition of suitable add mixtures and stabilizers. Soil stabilization deals with the physical, physic-chemical and chemical methods to make the stabilized soil serve its purpose. Present project is to investigate the effect of adding different chloride compounds including (nacl, cacl2) on the engineering properties of black cotton soil. Various amount of salt (2%, 4%, 6%and 8%) were added to the soil to study the effect of salts on the compaction characteristics, consistency limits and compressive. The main findings of this study were that the increase in the percentage of each of the chloride compounds increase the maximum dry density and decrease the optimum moisture content. The liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index decreased with the increase in salt content. The strength increases as the salt content increases.

Keywords- Soil Stabilization, Black Cotton Soil, Atterberg Limits,Strength

Unique Identification Number - IJEDR1602141
Page Number(s) - 797-800
Pubished in - Volume 4 | Issue 2 | May 2016
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) -   
Publisher - IJEDR (ISSN - 2321-9939)

  Swarna Swetha Kolaventi,  Sanjay Gokul Venigalla,  D.Rakesh ,   "Stabilization of Black Cotton Soil using Salts and Their Comparative Analysis", International Journal of Engineering Development and Research (IJEDR), ISSN:2321-9939, Volume.4, Issue 2, pp.797-800, May 2016, Available at :http://www.ijedr.org/papers/IJEDR1602141.pdf