A Study on Engineering Behavior of Black Cotton Soil and its Stabilization by Use of Lime

With rapid growth of population, fast urbanization and more construction of buildings and other structures has resulted in reduction of good quality available land. There is no choice for People except to use soft and weak soils around for construction activities. Such soil possesses poor shear strength and high swelling & shrinkage. The mechanical behavior of such nature of soil has to be improved by employing stabilization and reinforcement techniques to make it reliable for construction activities. Black cotton soil is one of the major issues in India. When exposed to variation in moisture content they undergo high swelling and shrinkage making it more complicated for engineering point of view. Lime is added to black cotton soil and stabilization takes place by virtue of pozzolanic reaction. A reaction takes place between hydrated lime and clay particles and resulting in formation of permanent strong cementation matrix. Experimental work has been carried out with 3 % and 5 % of lime content. Samples of black cotton soil were collected from Jhansi a district in state of Uttar Pradesh in India The basic properties of soil were determined. Changes in various soil properties like Liquid limit, Plastic Limit, California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and Maximum Dry Density were analyzed. .