A Study on the Chemical Stabilization of Expansive Soil

Rapid industrialization leads to increasing scarcity of land in the developing nations like India. This scenario forces us to utilize the problematic land for various construction activities. The problematic soil includes expansive soils, loess, collapsible soils, dispersive soils etc. These soils can be used for construction purpose only after adopting suitable ground improvement techniques. One such ground improvement technique is soil stabilization using chemicals. The chemical stabilizers are mostly preferred in case of expansive soils. The traditional chemical stabilizers are lime and fly ash. However there are several other chemical stabilizers also available for stabilizing the expansive soils which requires detailed investigation. Construction chemical is such a stabilizer which started gaining attention of the researchers. The soil is treated with Construction chemical independently and tested for the index (liquid limit, plastic limit and shrinkage limit) and UCC strength characteristics for 7, 14 and 28 days of curing. The test results indicate that the plasticity characteristics of soil treated with Construction chemical decreased with increase in percentage of Construction chemical and curing period The shrinkage limit values are increased for all four chemicals but the increase in shrinkage limit is less significant for other three chemicals Similarly the UCS values increased for all chemicals with increase in percentage and curing period. Construction chemical can also be used to improve the properties of soil.