Muroom Stabilization using Fly-Ash and Gypsum

Muroom Stabilization using Fly-Ash and Gypsum

Author Name : D. Sidharth Naidu, Mahesh Ram Patel

ABSTRACT

Soil is essentially a heterogeneous mixture of weathered rocks, organic matter and many other fine and coarse grained inorganic particles. Muroom mainly used as a part of sub-grade and sub-surface layers in pavement construction has appreciable strength in its natural state but loses a major part of its strength when soaked or subjected to adverse flooding or wet weather conditions. Reddish brown in colour and mainly composed of Lateritic minerals is mainly constituted of coarse grained particles and very less percentage of fines. Fly-Ash a major industrial waste poses serious health hazards and environmental pollution. Its disposal still remains an issue of concern along side with the degrading air quality index due to fine Fly-Ash particles that remain suspended in the ambient air. Hydrated Calcium Sulphate or Gypsum is a rich source of calcium found in nature and also in the form of industrial by-product. It is used explicitly in a wide variety of industries. Past studies and research papers on soil stabilization emphasize a lot on the use of these two major industrial wastes for improving the soil properties. The cost of procurement and transportation of muroom is a major drawback for the use of this soil in large quantities and also the limitations on the disposal of industrial waste paves the way for adopting alternate methods. The paper focuses on how the locally available materials can be used effectively by replacing the weaker component in a mix with a stronger one which is both easily available and cheap thereby, making the construction practice a cost effective one. In this study Muroom is treated with both Fly-Ash and Gypsum. The proportion of Fly-Ash varies as 0%, 15%, 20% and 25%. Initially the soil is mixed with Fly-Ash alone and an optimum percentage of 15% of Fly-Ash with respect to dry weight of the soil is obtained. The soil is then further treated with Gypsum in varying proportions of 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10%. Both the mixes are subjected to various tests such as consistency limit tests, standard and modified proctor tests, grain size analysis and California Bearing Ratio tests for both the soaked and Un-soaked conditions. The mix showed a difference in the values as compared to that of the virgin soil and hence the use of such industrial wastes proved to be effective for soil stabilization.

Keywords: Muroom, Fly-Ash, Gypsum, Stabilization, Industrial waste.