Use of Zycobond in Enhancing the Strength of Expansive Soil Modified with Rice Husk Ash (Rha)

Expansive soil is one such difficult soil that geotechnical engineers find annoying. They absorb water and expand during the monsoon, but they diminish throughout the summer when the water evaporates. Soil stabilization is a technique for improving the geotechnical assets of soil. It allows efficient usage of industrial leftovers as a stabilizer. An attempt is made in this paper, to investigate the impact of industrial waste, rice husk ash (RHA), and an acrylic polymer, Zycobond on the properties of expansive soil. The proportion of rice husk ash (RHA) as a replacement was varied from 0 to 20% with an increment of 5% and further Zycobond was added with varying percentages from 0 to 2.0% with an increment of 0.5%. Tests were conducted to assess the properties of expansive soil blended with RHA and Zycobond. The results were analyzed and found that the optimum percentages of RHA were 15% and Zycobond was 1.5%, respectively. Further, static model plate load tests were conducted on only expansive soil and expansive soil blended with RHA and Zycobond. Hence, the study yielded a better alternative for improving the expansive soil and effective usage of industrial waste RHA giving us a two-fold advantage.