Utilization of Stone Dust and Fly Ash to Enhance the Engineering Properties of Black Cotton Soil

Abstract

Due to its clayey properties, Black Cotton soils expand on wetting and shrink on drying. These properties of Black Cotton soils categorize these soils as expansive or swelling soils. Without treating these soils, the construction is not very easy over these expansive soils. Swelling and shrinkage behavior of these soils create the differential settlements, which create various critical problems on the structures. The improvements of Black Cotton soils using the mix of non-clayey material control all these irregularities and make it usable for the construction. With all these challenges, some basic experimental studies are carried out to enrich the engineering properties of Black Cotton soils by mixing equal percentage of stone dust and fly ash. The Black Cotton soil tested in the laboratory has been collected from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India. From the present study, it is found that the strength of Black Cotton soil improves by using the mix of stone dust and fly ash as compared to use these materials individually.