International Journal of Emerging trends in Engineering and Development ISSN 2249-6149

Issue 2, Vol.1( January-2012)

A Study on Some Geotechnical Properties

of Lime Stabilised Expansive Soil –Quarry
Dust Mixes
Dr. Akshaya Kumar Sabat
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering ITER,SOA University
Bhubaneswar, India, E mail;akshayasabat@yahoo.co.in,+91,9937948438

Abstract
The effect of lime on some geotechnical properties of an expansive soil stabilized with
optimum percentage of quarry dust has been described in this paper. The lime added were 2
to 7 % at an increment of 1%. Atterberg’s limit, compaction, consolidated undrained triaxial
compression, and durability tests were conducted on these mixes. The effect of 7 and 28
days of curing were also studied on shear strength. It was concluded that addition of lime
had increased the plastic limit, shrinkage limit, cohesion ,angle of internal friction, optimum
moisture content ,decreased the liquid limit, plasticity index, maximum dry density of the soil-
quarry dust mixes ,made the soil-quarry dust mixes durable .Curing had positive effects on
shear parameters.
Keywords- Expansive soil, quarry dust, lime, Atterberg’s limit, shear strength, durability.

1.1Introduction

Expansive soil is a type of clayey soil having montmorillonite mineral, which expands when
comes in contact with water and shrinks when the water evaporates. This soil is generally
found in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. A lot of damages occur on structures
founded on this type of soil. The damages normally appear as cracks in, buildings, canal beds
and linings, pavements, lifting of water supply pipeline and sewerage lines etc. A number of
innovative techniques are there for construction on this type of soil. Physical and chemical
alteration of soil using solid wastes like fly ash,rice husk ash, marble dust, phosphogypsum,
granulated blast furnace slag,red mud, waste tyre,etc.( Muntohar and Hantoro 2000, Pandian
et al.2001, Swami 2002,Phanikumar and Sharma 2004, Kalkan 2006, Degirmenci et al. 2007,
Cokca et al. 2009,Sabat and Nanda 2011,Patil et al. 2011) is one of them.Utilisation of solid
wastes in this manner not only protects the environment from degradation but also improves
the engineering properties of the expansive soil.
The quarry dust/ crusher dust is obtained as solid wastes, during crushing of stones to obtain
aggregates. The annual production of quarry dust is roughly around 200 million
tonnes(Soosan et al.2005).The disposal of which creates a lot of geoenvironmental problems.
A limited research is available regarding the utilisation of this waste for stabilization of expansive
soil. Gupta et al. (2002) made a study on the stabilization of black cotton soil using crusher dust a
waste product from Bundelkhand region, India and optimal percentage of crusher dust was found to
be 40%. Gulsah (2004) investigated the swelling potential of a synthetically prepared
expansive soil (kaolinite and bentonite mixture), using aggregate waste (quarry dust) and
lime. There was reduction in the swelling potential along with improvement in other
engineering properties and the reduction was increased with increasing percentage of

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International Journal of Emerging trends in Engineering and Development ISSN 2249-6149
Issue 2, Vol.1( January-2012)

stabilizers and days of curing. Sabat and Das(2009) had stabilized expansive soil using
quarry dust and lime and found the stabilization effects with improvement in Unconfined
compressive strength (UCS), soaked California bearing ratio (CBR) and reduction in swelling
pressure etc.Ali and Koranne(2011) had studied the combined effects of stone dust(quarry
dust) and fly ash (equal proportion of stone dust and fly ash) on swell and strength properties
of an expansive soil along with other properties. It was found that there was a maximum
improvement in strength properties for the combination of fly ash and stone dust as compared
to fly ash or stone dust, added separately.
When quarry dust is added with expansive soil it is expected that it will, make it more porous,
less durable, reduce cohesion etc. The addition of lime has been found to be a successful
stabilizer of the expansive soil. The effect of lime on Atterberg’s limit, compaction, shear
strength and durability characteristics of quarry dust stabilized expansive soil has not been
found in literature. The objective of this paper is to study the effects of lime on Atterberg’s
limit, compaction, shear strength and durability characteristics of an expansive soil stabilized
with optimum percentage of quarry dust. The effect of 7 and 28 days of curing on shear
strength are also studied.
.

2.1 Materials and Methods

The materials used in the experiments are
Expansive soil
The expansive soil used in the experimental work was brought from a place around 10 Km
away from Bhubaneswar, India. The geotechnical properties of the expansive soil are: Sand
size -18%,Silt size -26%, Clay size- 56%, Specific Gravity -2.61, Liquid Limit(wL)-60%
Plastic Limit(wP)-32%,Plasticity Index(IP)- 28%,Shrinkage Limit(wS)-11%,Optimum
moisture content (OMC)- 21%, Maximum dry density (MDD) -16.1kN/m³,UCS-60kN/m²,
Unsoaked CBR -4.82%, Soaked CBR -1.98%, Cohesion – 16 kN/m² , Angle of internal
friction- 80 ,Swelling Pressure- 128 kN/m2., IS Classification –CH.
Quarry dust
The quarry dust used in the experiment was brought from a crusher unit situated around 10
Km away from Bhubaneswar. The geotechnical properties of quarry dust are: Gravel size-
3%, Sand size- 81%, Silt size -16%, Specific Gravity-2.77,OMC-9.4%,MDD-20.1kN/m3,
Cohesion- 5 KN/m², Angle of internal friction -380, IS Classification –SM.
Lime
The lime used in the experiment was purchased from the Bhubaneswar market.
First of all optimum percentage of quarry dust to stabilize expansive soil was found out. To
find optimum percentage of quarry dust , quarry dust was added to expansive soil up to 60%
by an increment of 10%. Compaction, UCS, soaked CBR and swelling pressure tests were
conducted on these soil-quarry dust mixes.Based on these test results the expansive soil:
quarry dust ratio of 60: 40 was found to be optimum (Sabat and Das 2009). In this study, lime
was added to soil stabilized with optimum percentage of quarry dust starting from 2 % to 7 %
by dry weight of soil-quarry dust mixture in steps of 1 percent. Different tests like Liquid
limit, Plastic limit, Shrinkage limit, Modified Proctor tests, Consolidated undrained triaxial
compression tests were conducted on these samples/mixes as per relevant Indian standard
codes. Plasticity index was determined from the numerical difference of liquid limit and
plastic limit.Consolidated undrained triaxial compression tests were conducted on these
samples at 0, 7 and 28 days of curing.The curing was done by keeping the samples in
humidity chamber at a relative humidity of 97 % and temperature of 34 0 C.

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Issue 2, Vol.1( January-2012)

The durability test was conducted according to the procedure given in this paragraph.
Samples were prepared for UCS tests cured till 7 and 28 days in humidity chamber. After
curing its height and weight were measured then immersed (wet) in water for 5 hours. After
5 hours of immersion, the samples were surface dried and their weight and height was
recorded again. These samples were then dried in oven for 42 hours at 70 0C . Then the
samples were taken out and cooled for one hour. Again the weight and height of the sample
was recorded. This constituted one cycle of wetting and drying. UCS tests were conducted
after curing without subjecting them to any wet-dry cycles and with samples those survived
12 wet-dry cycles and whose loss of weight was less than 10% and change in height was less
than 1%. The percentage reduction in UCS both at 7 and 28 days of curing were calculated
after subjecting the mixes to 12 wet –dry cycles from the UCS of the mixes those were not
subjected to any wet –dry cycles.

3.1 Results

The results as obtained from the above laboratory tests are presented as follows

40
wL
35 wP
IP
30 wS
Moisture Content(%)

25

20

15

10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Lime content(%)

Fig.1 Variation of Liquid limit, Plastic limit, Plasticity index and Shrinkage limit with lime
content
Fig. 1 shows the variation of wL ,wP, IP, and wS of the expansive soil-quarry dust mixes with
lime content. Addition of 40% of quarry dust decreases the wL to 29 % from 60%, wP to
20% from 32%, IP to 9% from 28%, increases the wS to 13 % from 11% .Increase in
percentage of addition of lime further decreases the wL ,IP and increases the wP , and wS . The
wL decreases to 25.2 % , wP increases to 22.8 % , IP decreases to 2.4% and wS increases to
14.8% when 7% lime was added to expansive soil-quarry dust mixes. A reduction in IP and
increase in wS implies a reduction in swelling nature of the expansive soil-quarry dust mixes.
Fig. 2 shows the variation of OMC and fig.3 shows the variation of MDD of the expansive
soil-quarry dust mixes/samples with lime content. With the addition of 40% of quarry dust

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International Journal of Emerging trends in Engineering and Development ISSN 2249-6149
Issue 2, Vol.1( January-2012)

the OMC of the expansive soil decreases to 17.5% from 21% and MDD increases to 18.4
kN/m3 from 16.1 kN/m3 .The OMC goes on increasing, and MDD goes on decreasing with
increase in percentage of lime in soil-quarry dust mixes. The OMC reaches a value of 23.4%
and MDD a value of 15.7 kN/m3 when 7% lime was added. However up to 5% addition of
lime, the MDD of soil-quarry dust mix is 16.6 kN/m3 greater than the MDD of the virgin soil
(16.1 kN/m3). Generally, materials with higher densities give higher strength

24

23

22

21
OMC(%)

20

19

18

17
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Lime Content(%)

Fig.2 Variation of OMC with lime content

18.5

18.0

17.5
MDD(kN/m )
3

17.0

16.5

16.0

15.5

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Lime Content(%)
Fig. 3 Variation of MDD with lime content

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Issue 2, Vol.1( January-2012)

60 0day
7days
28days
Cohesion (kN/m ) 50
2

40

30

20

10

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Lime content(%)
Fig. 4 Variation of Cohesion with lime content and curing period

35
0day
7days
30 28days
Angle of internal friction( degree)

25

20

15

10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Lime content (%)

Fig. 5 Variation of Angle of internal friction with lime content and curing period
The variation of shear strength parameters as obtained from consolidated undrained triaxial
compression tests is presented in fig. 4 and fig. 5. With the addition of 40% quarry dust the
cohesion of the soil decreases to 12 kN/m2 from 16 kN/m2 and angle of internal friction
increases to 140 from 80 .The reason of which may be the replacement of cohesive soil with
quarry dust which has very low cohesion value and very high angle of internal friction than
soil. With the addition of lime, the cohesion goes on increasing up to 5% addition of lime,

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Issue 2, Vol.1( January-2012)

further addition of lime decreases the cohesion. Curing further increases the cohesion. The
cohesion increases to 57 kN/m2 from 12 kN/m2 at 28 days of curing. Similar trends are also
observed with angle of internal friction. The angle of internal friction increases to 33 0 from 80
at 28 days of curing. The increase in shear strength is due to the combined effect of
aggregation and cementation and the strength increase with increase in curing period is due to
long term pozzolanic reaction of clay with lime. The drop in strength of lime stabilized soil-
quarry dust mixes may be due to presence of unreacted lime particles, carbonation reactions
occur which results in poor workability and compatibility of the mixes. Hence the optimum
proportion of lime may be taken as 5%.

100 7 days cured

28 days cured

80
Loss in UCS(%)

60

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Lime Content (%)
Fig.6 Variation of percentage reduction of UCS after 12 wet dry cycles.
Fig.6 shows the variation of percentage reduction of UCS after subjecting the samples to 12
wet –dry cycles. The mix of 60% soil and 40% quarry dust could not survived any wet –dry
cycle due to lack of any strong bond between soil and quarry dust. Hence there is 100%
reduction in UCS. All the lime stabilized soil-quarry dust mixes survived the 12 wet-dry
cycles due to presence of lime and curing period, resulting strong bond between them. The
percentage reduction of UCS after subjecting the mixes to 12 wet-dry cycles is lowest i.e.
9.2% for 7 days cured mix and 5% for 28 days cured mix at 5% lime addition ,because that
is the optimum percentage.

4.1 Conclusion

A series of tests were conducted to study the effect of lime on Atterberg’s limit, MDD,OMC,
shear strength and durability of quarry dust stabilized expansive soil mixes. Following
conclusions are drawn from this study
i. The addition of quarry dust decreases the Liquid limit, Plastic limit, Plasticity index
and increases the shrinkage limit of the expansive soil. Liquid limit, Plasticity index
goes on decreasing and plastic limit and shrinkage limit goes on increasing with
increase in percentage of lime in expansive soil-quarry dust mixes.

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ii. The addition of quarry dust decreases the OMC and increases the MDD of the
expansive soil. OMC goes on increasing and MDD goes on decreasing with increase
in percentage of lime in expansive soil-quarry dust mixes and up to 5% of lime
content the MDD of expansive soil-quarry dust mix is greater than that of virgin soil .
iii. The addition of quarry dust to expansive soil decreases the cohesion and increases the
angle of internal friction. With the addition of lime to soil-quarry dust mixes, the
cohesion and angle of internal friction value increases up to 5% addition of lime and
decreases with further increase in lime content.
iv. Addition of lime makes the soil-quarry dust mixes durable. The percentage reduction
of UCS is lowest at 5% lime addition.

References

[1]A.K. Gupta, A.K. Sachan, A.K. Sahu and S. Kumar, “Stabilization of black cotton soil
using crusher dust –A waste product of Bundelkhand region,” Proceedings of Indian
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[2]A.K Sabat, and R.P.Nanda, “Effect of marble dust on strength and durability of rice husk
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[10]N. Degirmenci, A. Okucu, and A. Turabi, “Application of phosphogypsum in soil
stabilization,” Building and Environment, Vol.42 , pp. 3393-3398,2007.
[11] N. S. Pandian, K. C. Krishna and A. Sridharan, “California bearing ratio behavior of
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[12]T.G. Soosan, A .Sridharan, B .T Jose and B.M. Abraham, “Utilization of quarry dust to
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[13] U.Patil, J.R. Valdes, and T. M. Evans, “Swell mitigation with granulated tire rubber,”
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Issue 2, Vol.1( January-2012)

[14]Y. Gulsah, “Stabilization of expansive soils using aggregate waste, rock powder and
lime,” A Master of Science thesis submitted to the graduate school of natural and applied
sciences of the middle east technical university, 2004.

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