Stabilization of Black Cotton Soil with Copper Slag and Rice Husk Ash - An Environmental Approach

Stabilization of Black Cotton (BC) soils have been in recently attracted many researchers. The stabilization of Black Cotton Soils by Copper slag (CS) and Rice husk ash (RHA) were tried in the past separately. The authors tried to use both of them together in stabilization of BC soils. Present study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of different percentages of rice husk ash and copper slag as soil stabilizers. The tests performed on the mixed proportion of BC soils, Copper Slag and Rice Husk Ash are Vane shear, California Bearing Ratio (CBR), Atterberg limits, free swell index (FSI), and compaction tests. Limited studies have been reported for the combination of copper slag and rice husk ash in soil stabilization. The optimum mix was found to be in the proportion of 64 %BC+30 %CS+6 %RHA. FSI of soil treated with RHA+CS decreased steeply from 100 % to 20.4 %. There was a slight change in maximum dry density of the treated soil. The unsoaked CBR test shows that strength of optimum mix was 12.7 %. The stabilized soil mixtures have shown satisfactory strength characteristics and can be used for low-cost constructions to build houses and road infrastructure. Laboratory vane shear tests have been carried out under undrained conditions to study the shear strength parameters of the stabilized soil.