Abstract:
Expansive soils are those soils whose volume changes when subjected to change in moisture
content. This behaviour of expansive soil has the potential to affect the integrity and functionality
of the superstructure. The soil should be treated or replaced by a suitable material to improve its
mechanical property before any construction work is undertaken. The engineering properties of
expansive soils are conventionally improved through the use of additives. In this study bagasse
ash is used to reduce the amount of cement and lime from an economic point of view. Bagasse ash
of percent varying from 4 to 16 percent (by dry weight of the soil) is used to investigate the effect
of bagasse ash on cement and lime treated expansive soils. In order to evaluate the engineering
properties of the soil, natural moisture content, wet sieving, compaction test, unconfined
compressive strength test, specific gravity, free swell index and Atterberg limit tests were
conducted. The f ree swell has decreased and the plasticity index of the stabilized soil has improved
with the addition of 8% cement and 8% lime. So to get the required goal 4% cement and 6% lime
is used to reduce the amount of cement and lime by subst ituting bagasse ash to be economical.
The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) of unsaturated soils has considerable importance in
the analysis of geotechnical engineering problems involving soils that remain under partially
saturated conditions throughout any given year. The SWCC is a graphical representation of the
mathematical relationship between the matric suction of a soil and its water content and it is a very
fundamental property of unsaturated soils. The SWCC of treated and non-treated expansive soils
was measured to investigate the applicability of SWCC in checking the effectiveness of treatment
methods. The SWCC of expansive soils from Worota City were measured both in natural and
stabilized conditions using the pressure plate apparatus in the suction range of 33-1,400kPa. The
measured results were then analyzed using Fredlund and Xing (1994) SWCC model equation. The
SWCC results are used to interpret the expansive soil behavior due to stabilizer treatment. The air-entry parameter is related to the soil air-entry value, which is the matric suction for which air starts
to enter the largest pores in the soil. With an increase in the percentage of stabilization dosage the
air-entry value correspondingly decreases because bonding from chemical reactions between clay
particles forms aggregates and increases pore sizes in soil structure. The research data and
interpretation analysis presented here can be extended to understand volume change behaviors of
other stabilized expansive soils using the SWCC test data.