Behaviour of Locally Available Clay modified using Blood Clamshell Powder and Wheat Straw

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e ISSN: 2395 0056

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Behaviour of Locally Available Clay modified using Blood Clamshell Powder and Wheat Straw

Reshma P S1, Melissa Marian Ninan2

1Student, M Tech, Department of Civil Engineering, St.Thomas Institute for Science and Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

2Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, St.Thomas Institute for Science and Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India ***

Abstract Soil is one of the important material for building a modern infrastructure. Now a days, most of failure occurs due to the poor strength. In order to tackle this problem, a wide variety of additives like Lime, sodium carbonate, sodium sulphate, etc. canbeusedbutthesearevery expensive while looking through economic point of view. Therefore, it’s preferable to replace these by another kind of soil additive to make them economical and eco friendly. Most of the area, which is undergoing rapid industrialization, consists of extremely soft clay calling for expensive deep foundations. In our study we will do an experimental study on stabilization of locally available clay using Blood Clamshell powder (BCP) and wheat straw (WS) in varying proportions. Three various proportions of BCP (0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%) & wheat straw (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%) were added to obtain optimum percentage of each additive.Theanalysiswas done by standard proctor compaction test and unconfined compression strength test. The BCP and WS contents willhave significant effect in engineering properties of soil. After the stabilization of the clay, both the results were compared to arrive at the optimum percentage of additivesrequiredfor the clay to become strong foundation for construction.

Key Words: Locallyavailableclay,Bloodclamshellpowder, wheatstraw,StandardProctorcompactiontest,unconfined compressivestrengthtest,optimumpercentage.

1. INTRODUCTION

Soilstabilizationreferstotheprocessofimprovingvarious aspectsofthesoilbyaddingcertainadditives,specialsoilor cement properties to it. It is the biological, chemical or mechanicalmodificationofearthengineeringstructures.In civilengineering,soilstabilizationisamethodusedtorefine and improve land engineering strength. These include mechanical strength, physical strength, durability, compressibility, permeability and plasticity. In any construction project, whether it's a building, a road, or an airport,thegroundfloorservesasafoundation.Buttoday, mostfailuresoccurduetolowloadcapacity.Unstablesoils can cause many important structural problems related to overcrowding, slope instability, capacity to carry heavy loads,etc.Toaddressthisproblem,variousadditivessuchas Lime,sodiumcarbonate,sodiumsulphate,etc.canbeused,

buttheseareveryexpensivewhenyoulookattheeconomic perspective.Therefore,itisbesttoreplacethiswithanother typeofsoilsupplementtomakeitmoreeconomicalandeco friendly.Mostofthearea,withrapidindustrialdevelopment, consistsofsoftclaythatcostsexpensivedeepfoundations. The use of local property to support infrastructure needs, had to be assessed to show that local property has the potential to be used as a building material and building. BloodClamshellPowdercontainsignificantamountoflime/ calcium oxide (CaO) content, indicating that it is the main ingredientinthereactionofcementwhenexposedtowater. SinceClamshellpowderisawasteproduct,stabilizingusing this proves to be an eco friendly method. In addition, Clamshellpowdercanbeincorporatedintoasubsoillayerto improve not only strength but also soil stability. Using clamshellasstabilizingmaterialswillreducetheecological andenvironmentalimpactofsoilconservationwork

Very recently, attempts have been made by various researcherstousethenaturalwastefibers(humanhairs)as reinforcingmaterialwithdifferenttypesofsoilssuchasclay and sand. These studies concluded that the human hair fibersareeffectiveinincreasingthestrengthcharacteristics ofsoilsandtheoptimumfibercontentliesbetween0.5to 2%. This study deals with the usage of the wheat straw fibersasareinforcingmaterialwiththe soiltoinvestigate theeffectofreinforcementongeotechnicalpropertiesofsoil. Various studies focused to use wheat straw fibers in developing composite materials, but the studies on use of wheat straw fibers as reinforcement with soils are very limited, and no research paper is found available online. Thus,thereisanamplescope to explore theuseof wheat strawfibersforsoilreinforcement.Inthepresentstudy,an attempt has been made to evaluate the engineering properties of locally available clay reinforced with wheat straw fibers. For this study, a set of laboratory tests was performedonthereinforcedsoilaswellasonvirginsoilto comparetheeffectivenessofwheatstrawreinforcement.

2. MATERIALS USED

2.1 Soil

Asampleoftheclayeysoil(Figure1)iscollectedfromasite inAruvikkaraPanchayatatadepthofabout4metersfrom

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e ISSN: 2395 0056

Volume: 09 Issue: 05 | May 2022 www.irjet.net p ISSN: 2395 0072

theground.Thecollectedsamplewaslightincolourandrich inmoisturecontent.Itisallowedtosundryforaperiodof 4 5 days to determine its various index, geotechnical and engineering properties as per standard specifications. According to ASTM standards, the collected soil sample is categorizedashighplasticclay,whichisrepresentedasCH.

Fig 2:BloodClamshellPowder

2.3 Wheat Straw (WS)

Fig 1:Locallyavailableclay

The various properties of soil sample is given in table 1 below.

Table 1: Propertiesoflocallyavailableclay

Soil

properties Values

Naturalwatercontent 49.624%

Specificgravity 2.61 Unconfined Compressive Strength 6.34kg/cm2

ShearStrength 3.17kg/cm2 Liquidlimit 147.5% Plasticlimit 105.68% Toughnessindex 2.48 Liquidityindex 0.073 pH 6.73 Freeswellindex 1.96%

%clay 53.5%

%silt 29.5%

%finesand 17%

Maximumdrydensity 1.6g/cc

Optimummoisturecontent 25%

2.2 Blood Clamshell Powder (BCP)

BloodClamshellinpowderedformispurchasedfromalocal store in Trivandrum and the sample that passed through 75µm sieve were collected for the experiment for better efficiency.

The wheat straw fibers used in this study were obtained fromalocalfarmerinAruvikkarapanchayat.Themoisture contentoffiberwasfoundtobearound4 5%usingoven dryingmethod.ThelengthofWSvariedfrom10to50mm. Wheat straws were washed with water to remove the unwanteddirtystickyimpurities,followedbydryinginan ovenat72°Cfor48htoremovemoisture.Thelengthoffiber specimenswaskeptwithintherangeof10 50mm.

Fig 3:WheatStraw

3. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

Inourprojectwestartedourstudybycollectingthesample fromasiteinAruvikkaraPanchayat Thesamplewasdried in open sunlight and preliminary test on raw sample was conducted.Thevarioustestconductedonthesamplewere specificgravity,sieveanalysis,hydrometer,atterberg'slimit, standard proctor and Unconfined compressive strength (UCC). The clay sample were prepared with a varying proportionofseashellpowderandstrawfiberas0%,2.5℅, 5%,7.5%and10%(BCP)and0%,0.5%,1%,1.5%,and2% (WS). Standard proctor and UCC were conducted on preparedspecimensandobtainedtheoptimumpercentage of stabilizing agents required. In our study we mainly focusedoncompactionandunconfinedcompressiontest.

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3.1 Compaction test

Compactionistheprocessofsoilcompactionbyreducingair spaces.Thedegreeofsoilcompactionprovidedismeasured intermsofdrymatter Thedrydensityismaximumatthe optimumwatercontent.Acurveisdrawnbetweenthewater content and the dry density to obtain the maximum dry densityandtheoptimumwatercontent.

Drydensity=(M/V)/(1+w)

3.2 Unconfined Compression test

Theunconfinedcompressivestrengthistheloadactingper unitareaatwhichthecylindricalspecimenofacohesivesoil failsincompression.

qᵤ=P/A ,

where,P axialloadatfailure, A Correctedarea=Aₒ/(1 ε),

Aₒ initialareaofthespecimen,

ε

Axialstrain=changeinlength/originallength

4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

After collecting the stabilizing agents and clay sample, its physicalpropertieswereanalyzed.Thereaftertheclaywas stabilized with stabilizing agents and various tests were conductedtodetermineitsgeotechnicalproperties.Thetest conducted on stabilized sample are UCC and standard proctor.Thetestwasdonetwicetogetaccurateresultand theaverageofthevaluesweretaken.Theseresultsaregiven inthetablesbelowwithcorrespondinggraphs.

4.1 Unconfined compressive strength test

4.1.1 Blood clamshell powder (BCP)

Afterthedetailedanalysisontheunconfinedcompressive strengthofcollectedlocallyavailableclayhasbeendone,the followingresultshavebeenachieved.UCStestasperIS2720 part10 1991wereperformedusingdifferentproportionsof clamshellpowderandresultsareshownintable2.

Table 2: UCCtestresultsforBCP

BloodClamshellpowder(%) UCCvalues(kg/cm2) 0 6.34 2.5 7.54 5 9.41 7.5 9.25 10 6.56

Chart 1:Graphshowingvariationofstrengthwith clamshellpowder

Fromtheabovegraphwecanclearlystatethatunconfined compressionstrengthvaluesareincreasingupto5%BCP content and thereafter showing a declining trend. At this stage the clamshell powder absorbs more moisture and acquires a better bond between the powdered clamshells andtheparticlesoftheclayeysoil.

4.1.2 Wheat straw (WS)

Unconfinedcompressivestrength(UCS)testwasconducted on unreinforced and fiber reinforced specimens with different fiber contents. The results show that the fiber inclusionsignificantlyincreasesthecompressivestrength of fiber reinforced soil as compared to unreinforced soil. However, the maximum increase in the UCS value is observedforthe1.5%offiberinclusiontothesoil,thereafter UCSvaluedecreasedwithfurtherincreaseinfibercontent inclusion.ThevariationofUCSvalueswithfibercontentis showninTable3andchart2,whichindicatesthatthereisa significantimprovementincompressivestrengthofsoilwith wheatstrawfiberreinforcement.Itcanbeexplainedthatthe increaseinUCSvalueortheshearstrengthofsoilwithlow percentoffibercontent, ie,upto1.5%canbeattributedto thefactthatthefibersrandomlyalignedinthesoilandclose theshearplanewouldexperiencetensionandtherebythe failure strength of soil reinforced with straw fibers. However,withanincreaseinthefibercontentbeyond1.5%, the fibers by volume become larger. Therefore, while the specimen is being loaded or sheared, the tensile effect of fibers is not triggered. Also, with more volume of fibers, there may be higher possibility of fibers getting aligned along the shear plane while shearing and thereby the strengthatfailurereduces.

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e ISSN: 2395 0056

Table 3: UCCtestresultsforWS

Wheatstraw(%) UCCvalues(kg/cm2) 0 6.34 0.5 7.52 1 7.60 1.5 7.77 2 7.29

MDDwasfoundin5%.InthecaseofOMC,itcanbefound that the water content continues to decrease as the percentage of seashell grows. Also, it should be noted beyondadecreasingtrendofvalues,theoptimummoisture contentincreases.Thismeansthatthereactiontakesplace between water and the compounds present in the mixed sample.

Chart 2:Graphshowingvariationofstrengthwithwheat strawcontent

4.2 Standard proctor compaction test

4.2.1 Blood clamshell powder

Inthistesttodeterminethedensityofdrydensity(MDD) and Optimum moisture content (OMC) with different percentagesofBCP,differentresultswereobtainedasgiven inthetable4.

Table 4:Summary ofMDDandOMCvaluesfordifferent percentagesofBCP

PercentageofBCP insoilsample(%) Maximumdry density(g/cc) OMC(%) 0 1.60 25.00 2.5 1.62 24.80 5 1.82 23.70 7.5 1.80 23.36 10 1.77 26.03

Fromtheabovedata,itcanbeseenthatineveryincreasethe percentageofclamshellpowderresultsinanincreaseinthe amountofmaximumdrydensity.Thehighestincidenceof

Chart 3:VariationofOMCwithclamshellpowdercontent

Chart 4:VariationofMDDwithclamshellpowdercontent 4.2.2 Wheat straw

ThevariationofMDDandOMCwithfibercontentisshown in table 5. It is noticed from chart 5 and chart 6 that the values of OMC increase while that of MDD decreases with increasingfibercontent.Nevertheless,thereductioninMDD is marginal only. Marginal reduction in the MDD of the matrixisduetothelightweightnatureofwheatstrawfibers mixedwiththesoilwhichreducesthedrydensity.But,itis evidentthatreinforcementprimarilyaffectsthemaximum dry density and also has an effect on the optimum water content.

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Table 5:Summary of MDDandOMCvaluesfordifferent percentagesofWS

PercentageofWS insoilsample(%)

decreased.However,themaximumdrydensityofthesoil fibermatrixisfoundtodecreasemarginallywithanincrease inthefibercontent.

Maximumdry density(g/cc)

OMC(%) 0 1.60 25.00 0.5 1.54 25.60 1 1.45 30.70 1.5 1.48 25.80 2 1.42 25.50

2)FromtheresultsoftheUCCtest,thereisanincreaseinthe unconfined compressive strength of the clayey sample collectedwithincreaseinshellpowder.Thevalueshowedan increasing trend initially and subsequently the value followed a declining trend. In case of WS, the above mentioned variation trend is observed with increasing percentageoffibercontent.

3) The use of clamshell powder and wheat straw fiber to stabilize the clay to meet the basic stabilization requirementshasprovenanditcanbeconcludedthatthe optimum percentage can be taken as 5% of the dry soil weightforBCPand1.5%ofdryweightofsoilforWS,which is similar to the optimum fiber content of other types of naturalandsyntheticfibers.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Chart 5:VariationofOMCwithvaryingpercentagesof fiberinlusion

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Melissa Marian Ninan, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, St. Thomas Institute for Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram for her important guidanceandsuggestions.Manythankstotheassistantsof the Geotechnical Laboratory for their support throughout theresearch.

REFERENCES

[1] MasyitahMdNujid, JulianaIdrus,DuratulAinTholibon, NorFaizahBawadi,AliAkbarFirooz,BearingCapacity of Soft Marine Soil Stabilization with Cockel Shell Powder(CSP),InternationalJournalofEngineeringand Advanced Technology (IJEAT) ISSN: 2249 8958,Volume 9,Issue3,February,2020.

Chart 6:VariationofMDDwithvaryingpercentagesof fiberinclusion

3. CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results, the following conclusions may be reached:

1) The optimum moisture content showed a decreasing pattern on increasing BCP content and afterwards OMC valueshowedanincreasingtrend Anincreaseinoptimum moisture content with an increase of in fiber content is noticed,buttheincreaseisinsignificant

1)Thereisanincreaseinthemaximumdryvolumeweight foreachpercentageincreaseofClamshellpowder.TheMDD value reached to a maximum value and thereafter it

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