AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON STABILIZATION OF BLACK COTTON SOIL USING FLY ASH

Abstract

Black cotton soils are extensively distributed worldwide and covered about 20% of the land area, the foundation designing is a difficult task because they are source of great damage to infrastructure and buildings. In monsoon they swell and in summer they shrink on evaporation of water from there. Because of these fluctuations in moisture content there will be changes in volume, and due to this the civil engineering structures like buildings, pavements, canal linings etc. are severely damaged. It is, therefore, necessary to mitigate the problems posed by black cotton soils and prevent cracking of structures. Stabilization is the process of improving the properties of soils, stabilization methods are of mechanical and chemical. Chemical method is obtained by using stabilizers such as cement, sand, silt, lime, fly ash etc. As fly ash is freely available, for projects in the vicinity of the Thermal Power Plants, it can be used for stabilization of black cotton soils for various uses. The project describes a study carried out to check the improvements in the properties of black cotton soil with fly ash in varying percentages (10%, 20% and 30%).