Effect of Crusher Dust on Geotechnical Properties and Strength Parameters of Highly Plastic Clay

Abstract

A flexible pavement is consisted of four layers such as surface course, base course, sub-base course, and most importantly sub-grade layer. In rigid pavement the bottom layer that is sub-grade is common. Sub-grade acts as a foundation to the pavement. The sub-grade soil can be clay, sand, morrum etc. If the sub-grade soil is soft or weak there is a great chance of deformation in the pavement and also weak sub-grade soil require larger depth for laying pavement on it. It is not cost effective to replace all the sub-grade soil at the time of construction. Nowadays soil stabilization with admixture is followed everywhere as it is cheaper as compared to other ground improvement techniques. Here stabilization using a non-cementitious admixture is on the focus. In this study crusher dust is used as a stabilizer for clayey soil. Using crusher dust as a stabilizer serves two purposes that is soil stabilization and waste minimization from the quarry industry. In this study certain percentages of crusher dust were added to the soil sample such as 5 %, 10 %, 15 %, 20 % to evaluate the amount of crusher dust that can give the best possible solution to the weak soil. Different kinds of test are performed on the soil and crusher dust mixture to assess the stability and permanency of strength of the sub-grade soil. Reducing the swelling and plasticity of the clay soil is one of the prime targets of this research. The performed tests are Atterberg limits, CBR test, triaxial test, Standard compaction test and Swelling index test. The results in the end support the statement that crusher dust can be good stabilizer for clay soil.