An Experimental Study and Evaluation of Strength Properties of Granite Dust Treated Expansive Soil

The stabilization of weak soil such as expansive clayey soils plays a very important role in the various civil engineering construction works like foundations and roadway works, and it has reduces the strength properties of existed soil such as compressibility, subgrade properties and shear strength. In this present research shows the experimental results obtained in the laboratory on expansive soil treatment with material-like granite powder has a low-cost, reusable industrial effluent and reduce the environmental pollution. The study was conducted to evaluate the improvements in the properties of expansive soil with the effective addition of granite dust in different percentages. Sieve analysis, consistency limits, compaction properties, California bearing ratio (CBR) and UU triaxial tests have performed over the granite powder mixed expansive clay samples. In the present study, soil samples were prepared with the inclusion of quarry dust by 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% at their respective OMC and MDD. Strength tests like CBR and triaxial tests were performed to evaluate the performance of soil samples before and after with granite dust treatment. Incorporation of 30% granite dust into expansive soil yielded optimum improvement in strength and stability. At this dosage, soil density, shear strength and CBR increased significantly, with enhancements of 215 and 239% compared to untreated soil. Granite dust is therefore an effective stabilizer for enhancing the engineering performance of clayey soils.