EFFICACY OF CBR ON BEHAVIOR OF BLACK COTTON SOILS REINFORCED WITH WASTED PVC PIPE STRIPS

With rapid increments in technology globally, day by day increment in use of plastics such as PVC (Poly Vinyl Chlorides) pipes polyethylene bags, bottles etc. is also increasing by leaps and bounds. The disposal of thrown away wastes such as PVC Pipes pose a serious challenge since these PVC pipes are non-biodegradable and unfit for incineration as they emit harmful gases. The long-term performance of any structure depends on the strength of the underlying soils. Unstable soils like black cotton soils can create significant problems for pavements or structures by high swelling and shrinkage. Soil stabilization can be explained as the alteration of the soil properties by chemical or physical means in order to enhance the engineering quality of the soil. Soil stabilization improves the engineering properties of weak soils by controlled compaction or adding stabilizers like cement, lime etc. but these additives also have become expensive in recent years. So this paper presents a detailed study on the variation of CBR and use of wasted PVC pipes in soil improvement. Experimental investigation on reinforced PVC soil results showed that, PVC pipes can be used as effective stabilizer so as to encounter wasted PVC pipes disposal problem as well as an economical solution for stabilizing weak soils following particular aspect ratios and layers. This study involves the investigation of the effect of PVC Pipes on clay soil with high compressibility (Black cotton soil) for which a series of California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests are conducted with varying aspect ratios (1.27:1, 2.54:1, 3.81:1) of PVC pipes at different layers. The results reflect that there is significant increment CBR value with PVC pipes reinforcement in soil. The quantum of improvement in the soil properties depends on type of soil, Aspect Ratio and the layer at which PVC pipes are laid as it is observed from the study that, improvement in CBR value of clayey soil at aspect ratio of 1.27:1 and combination of 1 & 3 layers.